More Than A Small Problem
by LostInTheDreams
Summary: Hakuba's in the wrong place at the wrong time. He must be killed. The Black Organization takes measures to make sure the detective won't talk, but will that be enough or will there be one more little detective out on the streets?
1. The Wrong Reflection

This is another idea that, again, came from AkemiXchan.

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**_Chapter 1: The Wrong Reflection_**

When it came, death was not pretty or pleasant. Death could be quiet but even then, it could cut deeper into the heart than waking death. Death was not something that Saguru wanted to experience for some time to come.

And yet death had found its way to him.

Saguru struggled desperately against his captor and his confusion alike. Had he known what was going on, he would have tried to talk his way out of it. As it was, Saguru couldn't even see the person behind. All he knew was that his arm was twisted painfully and their hold on his hair didn't lessen for all his attempts at escape.

"What should we do? Did he see us?"

Saguru could tell it was a man's voice but nothing more than that. It's flat and even tones spoke of years of callousness.

"How the hell should I know? I thought he said it would be safe here."

"It was," the man behind Saguru told his female accomplice. "I don't think the boy even knows what we're doing."

"We have to finish the job!" the woman stressed. "If we kill him now then we'll give our position away!"

Saguru swallowed, afraid that he could die in an instant and never see it coming.

The man behind him reached for something and Saguru could feel fear race through his mind. If he was going to pull a gun on him, Saguru wouldn't make it easy.

"Sit still." With a sharp twist the detective found himself being forced to the ground and the man who'd been holding him kept a lock on his arm and a knee in his back. Saguru could hear the static of a radio.

"We have a problem. There's someone up here."

Saguru cursed himself for being so stupid. They were on the roof at the hotel he'd been staying at. His room was just a few floors down but the building itself soared above the surrounding structures. No one would see him or hear him. Why the hell had he decided to come up onto the roof?

There was a large press conference across the street. He remembered that. Many politicians from around the world were gathered to speak about military defense. With a sickening feeling, Saguru realized what he'd just walked in on.

The static of the radio that came back was indistinct.

"I got it."

The man dug his knee further into Saguru's back as he placed the radio at his side and drew something out of his pocket. The detective let out a breath when his captor took his weight back off and he was able to breathe correctly.

"So what does he want us to do?"

The man didn't say anything and Saguru looked around desperately for something that he could use against them. They had guns, he knew that. The long riffles had caught his attention before the faces of the people holding him had, and they'd quickly made sure that he didn't know what was going on after that.

He found himself praying that he wouldn't be killed. There was so much he still had to do and, though he could examine it, Saguru was afraid of death.

There was a snick as something closed.

"What's that?" the woman asked. Saguru shared her interest.

"I don't know. Gin gave it to me incase anything happened."

The man turned him over and Saguru took the time to observe everything he could. The man was older than he thought, hair hidden under a dark hat and eyes hidden behind sunglasses even though it was night. His cautiousness was demonstrated by the fact that he was wearing a bullet proof vest.

The woman Saguru couldn't see as his hair was yanked backwards again and something was put in his mouth follow by a rush of water that had him choking with no option but to swallow whatever that had given him.

"We've got ten minutes still. This should take care of him."

The man actually let him go and Saguru wondered if they were done with him. He wanted to get out of there badly.

The next instant he was doubled over in pain and felt like he was going to throw up. Even the screams he wanted to let out were stolen away by the intensity of the torment. Saguru stayed huddled over where he was while the man who had been holding him down walked away.

Any rational thoughts were gone and all he was aware of was wave after wave of pain afflicting his body.

Through shaking and shallow breaths, Saguru saw when the two left him. The woman had come over to laugh at him and stoke his arm before departing and Saguru could do nothing but let them go. Everything hurt.

The pain was too much. Saguru had never felt anything like it before in his life and it wasn't directed at just one spot, it was atomically widespread.

He wasn't aware of when he passed out. Saguru could feel as his body continued to shake while the pain started to fade. The world went with it and he was afraid he would never open his eyes again, even as they closed of their own free will.

_I'm going to die,_ he thought.

…

The sun reached high enough by ten to alight the top of the building in its brilliant glare. Saguru blinked his eyes open as the light started to give him a headache from his stationary position.

It took him a minute to realize that he wasn't in his bed.

"What happened?" he asked out loud to make some sense of his situation. The detective looked around and saw the stairway that lead back inside along with an air conditioning duct and a satellite dish.

"Why am I outside?" Saguru put a hand to his face and noticed that something was terribly wrong. Not only did his face feel different, softer, but the sleeve of his shirt was completely gone.

The detective looked down at his clothes which were hanging off of him, his arm having escaped through the collar of his shirt. He studied his hand and its small size for a minute before getting up.

"I must be dreaming. There is now way that I've… what, shrunk?" he asked himself. "Yes, that would be physically impossible. Must be dreaming. I guess whatever they gave me last night is making me hallucinate."

Saguru's eyes widened. "Those guys last night!"

Someone opened the door behind him and Saguru tensed, expecting those people to have returned. His eyebrows rose when he was looking up at an Inspector, and a fat on at that, who was looking down at him with equal confusion.

"Hey, there's a kid up here!" He yelled to someone behind him, who his large girth kept Saguru from seeing.

_Kid? Hardly_. Saguru was trying to get people to stop treating him like a child. He didn't appreciate when his youth was broadcasted.

A woman with short hair came around the Inspector and bent down to face him with a smile. Saguru frowned at how much taller she seemed than he.

"Hello little boy. You're father's going to be mad when he finds out you've been playing around in his clothes."

"My father?" Saguru stopped speaking and his eyes widened as he looked down again at his hands. His voice had come out so high. He knew that wasn't right. Nothing was right. Something was definably _not right_!

"Come here." The female officer freed his black overcoat from the jumbled mess of clothes around him. She then lifted him as his pants and – Saguru had to blush and look away – boxers fell at his feet. She wrapped the coat around him, tying it around his waist where Saguru could see his white, button-up shirt reached passed his knees. "Get back in before you get into any more trouble."

Saguru nodded numbly, collecting the rest of his clothes before walking back into the apartment complex.

When he got down to his floor he fumbled with his coat before finding the card key for the room. It was a stretch but he was just able to insert it into the lock and push the door open.

"What in the world happened to me?" Saguru asked himself, walking into the bathroom. The mirror was too high for him to see anything so he went further into the apartment to find the full length mirror that was next to the television.

He couldn't understand what he was seeing.

"I must still be dreaming," Saguru chided himself, smiling and putting a hand to his forehead. He felt it shake. He knew real contact when he felt it but there must be some other explanation than what he was faced with.

"I couldn't have turned back into a kid again- it's not possible. If it was possible then the whole world would be doing it. This isn't science fiction."

Saguru looked at his childhood self who was smiling, fear playing around his eyes. He hadn't seen his reflection looks so scared in years.

"Damn it!" he swore, falling onto the carpet and staring at his younger self. "This is real."

_What am I supposed to do? What happened? Those people last night must have done something but it just wasn't possible. I can't even call the police!_

The police were here, Saguru reminded himself. That meant the people last night may have killed someone right in front of him and he hadn't been able to stop them.

The detective swallowed, turning to his mirrored self as he got up and sat on the bed, looking very small. "What am I supposed to do? No one will believe me."

_I have no one to call._

It scared him, having to sit there alone and try to figure out what he was supposed to do. They had been trying to kill him, that man and woman. He couldn't tell the police what he knew because they would never believe him. It wasn't as if he would have believed himself if the situation were reversed, so expecting others to believe him was foolish.

That left him the option of calling his father. He didn't live with the man but he knew his father had been taking good care of him since he'd come back to Japan. With his grandfather's research lab, Saguru would be able to prove who he was.

But what if they went looking for him? What if they thought they hadn't killed him? The police were up there now and it would be obvious when no body was found.

He couldn't go home.

Saguru took out his phone and scrolled through the numbers to find someone he could call. He needed someone who could keep secrets, someone who wouldn't turn him into the police, lest the people from last night find him.

One name kept coming to mind but Saguru tried to ignore it. When his phone showed no better results he went back through the list to find the number he needed.

_This is going to be the strangest phone call of my life._

He hit the call button.

The phone rang but no one picked up. Saguru frowned at it and tried again with the same results. He closed the phone and laid it on the bed with a downcast look.

"The one time I actually want you to pick up is the one time you can't."

Saguru thought. If there was one thing he was good at it was thinking. He had no one else to rely on but the stupid magician and that was only one person... and only _if _he believed his story. Saguru didn't even believe it.

His phone rang.

"Hello?" he answered.

"What the hell do you want? You do know I'm in the middle of class don't you? Come to think of it, you should be here too!"

"Kuroba-kun," Saguru smiled. Someone was there. He had someone to talk to. He didn't have to be confused and alone anymore. "Help me."

Kaito's yelling all but stopped. "What's the matter with your voice?"

Saguru laughed and was surprised when a choked sob came out. "I don't know. Please, I need your help."

"Where are you?"

There wasn't any hesitation and Saguru was grateful that Kaito wasn't using anything against him. He was almost afraid the magician would ignore him simply because they never seemed to get along. And, Saguru had to admit, he'd made things that way.

"I'm at the Park Hotel in Higashi Shimbashi Minato Ku. I'm in room 168 on the thirty first floor."

"Ah, fine. Give me a second though. I have to give Aoko _some_ reason that I'm ditching school. This better be important!"

"It is."

"Okay then. I'll be there in fifteen minutes."

The line clicked into silence and Saguru had never been so happy at the prospect of seeing the magician in his entire life. He had a feeling he would never feel that contented with him ever again but that didn't matter at the moment.

He wasn't alone.


	2. A Different Guise

Yeah! Thanks for showing such interest in the story!  
I wasn't too sure that anyone would!

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_**Chapter 2: A Different Guise**_

"Hakuba-kun, I'm so going to kill you! You know how long the stupid line at the front desk is? They wouldn't let me in unless I was staying in a room!"

Saguru jumped as the magician slammed the door open without him having to open it. It didn't take him long to wonder how Kaito had done it before he saw a card key identical to his in the magician's hand.

Kaito stood frozen when he saw Saguru.

His white shirt was wrapped around his waist and hid the lower half of his body from view and Saguru twitched under the scrutinizing glare of Kaito's eyes, wishing he could have worn the shorts except for the fact that he look like he was drowning in it if he did.

"I told you I needed help."

It felt strange to not have Kaito smiling. He stayed perfectly still in the doorway and something akin to recognition struck him. Saguru couldn't tell what it had been.

The next second he'd wished he hadn't thought that the magician looking stoic for once was a bad thing.

Kaito closed the door and started laughing. _Laughing!_

Saguru didn't like being humiliated and he already felt enough of a fool for the way he looked.

"Kuroba-kun stop that! What do you find so funny?"

"Y- your clothes." He kept at it. "I'm sorry but you look like a – like a… never mind." Kaito cleared his throat. "Sorry," he grinned and snickered away. "I wasn't expecting –" The magician waved his hand at Saguru.

"Neither was I. Last night. Something happened."

The look he gave him was enough that Kaito stopped his annoying laughter and settled down on the bed with him.

"What happened?"

The magician still looked ready to continue his folly but there was another emotion or two in there, hidden away. Saguru had only started looking into Kaito's emotional trickery recently. He could sense that the magician was concerned, and very concerned at that, but he couldn't tell why.

Saguru relived that night's disaster to him. It felt strange to talk about his life being in danger and someone like Kaito caring about it but he knew that the magician did by the way he tensed up when Saguru spoke about the guns.

"Would you be able to recognize them?" Kaito asked when he was finished.

"The man, not the woman. Why?"

"I wanted to know if you saw enough to put yourself in danger. I guess you did." Kaito closed his eyes and he looked like he had gone to sleep. Saguru was ready to hit him when the magician opened them back up with a clarity that showed he'd been thinking.

Saguru frowned. "Why did you believe that it was me? I found it hard to trust my own reflection and I'm the one in my body. How did you know I wasn't lying to you?"

"First," Kaito raised a hand a put up a finger. "I know when I'm being lied to. It isn't easy to con a con-artist."

Saguru smiled when he notice that could be attributed to a thief or a magician. Kaito smirked in return before putting up another finger.

"Second, I've seen this before so it wasn't as hard to believe as it was the first time."

"You've seen this happen before? Kuroba-kun this," Saguru took his hand and waved it down at his body, his chest still exposed and his soft blond hair almost to a shade of white. "Is impossible!"

"I thought so too, before." Kaito got up and stood against the wall, taking his cell phone out of his pocket and hitting a programmed in number. "Let me see if I can't get some answers."

Kaito quickly hung up before the call could go through. "Damn it, he'll be in school right now too and I don't think he'll pick up an unknown number twice. We'll have to wait."

"Kuroba-kun, I don't understand what's going on."

Kaito met his eyes seriously before lounging against the wall again. "Neither do I."

"You seem to know more about it than I do. I would like it if you explained it to me."

"I can't do that. I really don't understand it. Just because people have seen a solar eclipse doesn't mean they can explain the rotation of the plants, the phases of the moon, and the Path of Totality."

Saguru shook his head. "Okay, enough. I don't want to hear rambling about things that, as far as I know, have yet to be covered in school."

The magician shrugged. "The moon's important to me, sorry for knowing about it."

"What?"

It was the closest thing that he'd ever heard linking Kaito to Kid but the magician had said it in a way that couldn't be used against him.

"I'm sure you know all about forensics science even though you're a detective. Some things you need to learn about to help you understand the bigger picture."

"Yes, well, none of that is important right now." Saguru could feel himself sway slightly. The pain from last night was completely gone but all the impossibilities he was faced with at once, along with the fear for his future, didn't help him cope.

"I think we should get some lunch. We'll stop by his house instead of using the phone, since this seems like something that would be bad if the call was intercepted."

"Who's house?"

"After we eat. I think I'll need to see if I can't find you some clothes too. I guess that means we're going to my house unless you want to go somewhere else." Kaito shrugged. "I really don't care."

"We'll go to your house. I don't want my housekeeper seeing me like this." Saguru held up his hands as his clothes bunched up at his waist. "But everyone will see me. How are we going to get there?"

The magician stopped to think about it. "I had an idea but it's not going to work with you." The glare he sent Saguru's way wasn't angry but it was tinged with resentment. "I can't. We'll just have to take the bus."

"I can't go out in public like this!"

"There's no other way."

They glared at one another as they thought. Saguru was not about to walk around half naked on the bus.

"I'll carry you. No one will notice."

Saguru had already checked his pockets to see that everything he had, money, credit cards, and the like, had all been taken so he didn't even have the money for the bus.

"I hate to admit it but, at the moment, I'm broke."

"I've got enough money for bus fare but that's it. I usually don't carry a lot of cash on me. You never know what's going to happen and money is so easy to lose."

"Fine," Saguru looked away. "I guess you'll have to carry me then. If I could walk around without pants and not faint I promise I wouldn't be letting you do this!"

The magician grinned. "I would hope not."

It really wasn't so bad once Kaito had him in the air. Saguru could feel the revulsion when the magician put his hand up in a frail attempt to hide his features while he held him in his other arm. It went against everything in his character but Saguru tried to help as well by sinking as far into the magician's grip as he could get.

The walking was fine. Waiting at the bus stop was torturous.

Not only was the magician unable to hide him from everyone but each person that passed them gave the duo glances of undisguised confusion and disgust.

"They're probably thinking either our parents are really messed up or that I kidnapped you, so stop looking back at them."

Saguru looked up and it just occurred to him how worried Kaito looked.

"What's the matter?"

"If they do think I kidnapped you they'll call the police and I don't know how we could explain ourselves."

"You'd stick around to wait for the police?"

It was minuet but Saguru saw the magician twitch. A smile quickly replaced anything and he meet Saguru's eyes with tired patience. "What else should I do?"

It was a losing battle and Saguru didn't want to fight him on it now. He needed the help. "Don't you have anything that could hide my hair?"

The magician shook his head. "I wish."

Resigned to wait and see what happens, Saguru laid against the magician's chest. He was really tired. The sleep he'd gotten last night had been forced, taking away from his health. The magician didn't miss it.

"I think I know something that might help but I wasn't sure that you would let me."

"What is it?" Saguru blearily looked at Kaito as he was set down on the bench next to where the magician was standing. Kaito started to unbutton his school jumper and stopped halfway before picking him back up.

"What are you doing?"

"Hiding your falling off clothes but it's going to look kind of funny. I can't think of anything else and we're already drawing too much attention."

The magician put him inside his coat and kept his arm on the outside where he was able to hold Saguru up in a makeshift cot in his jacket. "At least now no one can see you half naked."

"Don't remind me." Saguru's eyes were closing again and he couldn't help it. He felt – safe. It wasn't like he never felt that way before but, with what happened last night, he knew it would be awhile before he was able to sleep soundly. The magician, and Saguru was starting to realize he did it on an unconscious level, steadfastly protected what he considered important.

In other words the magician was not someone who could be bought like others and, for once, Saguru thought it was a good thing that valuables registered so low on Kaito's 'important' list. He didn't want those men to know about him.

"Hakuba-kun."

Saguru opened his eyes and quickly looked around when he noticed they were already on the bus. Had been out for a while by the way Kaito was leaning against the metal post with bent legs as people scooted past them.

"What happened?"

"You fell asleep. There's only one more stop and I thought you'd want to be awake."

Saguru rubbed his eyes and still felt sleep tugging at him, though adrenaline and fear were starting to take their rightful place back in the forefront of his mind.

"Yes."

"By way, what the hell's been hitting me this whole time? I would have looked except… you're clothes are, you know…"

Saguru felt it too.

"Oh, sorry." He took out his pocket watch that he'd rescued from his coat before they left. "I couldn't leave it."

"Tsh. Stupid watch? Why not?"

Saguru held it up to his bare skin when Kaito tried to take it from him.

"Stop! It's mine!"

"I know that!" Kaito's words were harsh but whispered as he looked around. Saguru realized what a bad decision it was to yell while circumstances were still unstable.

"I'm sorry," he apologized. "But this is mine. It's very important to me."

Kaito tipped his head but Saguru refused to meet his eyes. It was a personal matter.

"Fine but at least let me hold onto it for now. Unlike you, I have pockets."

Saguru continued to cling to it and Kaito sighed.

"You know me, I'm not about to lose it."

This time it was the magician who looked away when Saguru tried to meet his eyes. _Did he just imply what I thought he implied?_ Saguru was baffled by the admittance but, again, it couldn't be used against him. He grudgingly handed the watch over.

"I'll give it back to you."

"You'd better."

They got off the bus after that and Saguru looked down the large residential street, with its smaller houses and reduced trees. There was litter here and there and the dinginess of the finishing on the houses and the non-existent upkeep of the yards was prevalent.

"What's that look for?"

"Sorry."

The magician blew him off and Saguru could feel that he'd become angry with him. "Not everyone has fortunes to spend. Some of us like to live the average life style."

"I didn't mean anything by it; it's just unfamiliar to me."

"You've never gotten a client from a neighborhood like mine?"

It wasn't biting but an actual question.

"No. Most of the people who seek my help have larger capital. In my defense, the reason behind that is most likely my father. I don't ask for pay for my services."

The magician stopped.

"Really?"

"I used to," Saguru admitted. "But my clients have a hard enough time afterwards so I usually work for free or low pay. It's not that easy to deal with emotionally distraught people when they've lost someone and you're asking for money."

"So you took the easy way out."

Saguru was astounded at the way Kaito's words held understanding. That was _not_ the reason he had stopped accepting money. He hardly needed it with his father's job paying for everything. The reason he had stopped was to give the people he helped less to worry about, less hurt to deal with.

How little the magician thought of him was painful.

They arrived at the Kaito's house before Saguru could find the proper words in which to describe his complete and utter offense towards the magician's sentiments.

The house looked rather large from the outside and, unlike his neighbor's, the bushes surrounding the door were well cared for and Saguru could see multicolored flowers poking out of the soil in front of them.

"Okasan!"

"Kaito? What are you doing home?"

A woman with short, almost honey brown colored hair popped her head out from around the corner of another room. Saguru had to assume that it was Kaito's mother since he knew that the magician had no siblings. He'd checked. There was no way he wanted more people like Kaito running around him.

"I had to leave. A friend of mine from school asked me for a favor during lunch and now I'm stuck with their little cousin for a while. I'm going to talk to him later to see what we're going to do. He's parents sent him here to his uncle and they can't handle him. Would it be too much trouble if he stayed for a while?"

A complete background story for his presence and Saguru knew that Kaito hadn't been working on it before. He was too nervous. To have something completely off the top of his head come out sounding so reasonable distracted Saguru from his earlier anger.

"He's also wearing my friend's shirt because he was being a brat and made his clothes filthy. You wouldn't happen to have anything he could wear, would you?"

"Well," Kaito's mother came around the corner and Saguru had to look away. Having Kaito see him half naked was one thing but having a woman look at him was worse. "I still have some of your old clothes but… only those weird ones that you insisted on wearing. I don't know if they would look good on him."

"Where are they?"

Kaito set Saguru down on the couch and he tried to make himself as unobtrusive as he could.

"They're in the attic."

While the magician went off in search of the clothes, his mother inspected Saguru with a keen eye and gentle smile. They looked a lot like one another at that moment and Saguru felt just as uneasy as he had when the magician had first taken in his appearance.

"What's your name?"

"Ha- Saguru."

There was no way the detective could give out his last name. His first was, by no means, common knowledge but his family name would garner him more attention then he needed.

"Ok Saguru-kun, are you hungry?"

He nodded and the woman walked back off into the kitchen, leaving him alone and very ill at ease in the living room.

"Sorry Hakuba-kun, I couldn't find anything decent so you'll have to deal with it."

The large grin that accompanied the words didn't match them. The magician made his way down a set of stairs he'd disappeared up when they arrived.

"What do you mean?"

"Here, put these on."

The black pants were fine. They were slightly too tight but it was better than being too lose.

"This too."

The magician held the black shirt opened so that he wouldn't be able to see what was on it. There was no choice anyway so Saguru put his arms up and let Kaito dress him.

Looking down he saw a white skull plastered across the front with a blood splatter painted on near the bottom.

"Really?" Saguru asked with lidded eyes. "You really couldn't find anything better?"

"No. In fact, most of them were worse. I seemed to like anything that wasn't 'normal' at that age. Not that I didn't have any normal clothes," the magician defended himself. "Mom just kept the ones that she thought were funny to see in kid's sizes."

"I look like a miniature manic."

"Hey," Kaito grinned. "At least no one will know it's you."


	3. Altered View

Thanks everyone out there! I don't get as many people readign this one but  
More of you are reviewing and I'm very greatful.

Thank you so much!

* * *

_**Chapter 3: Altered View**_

Saguru had to sit on a pillow in order to reach the table and eat. It was degrading, embarrassing, and worst of all, he had to do it in front of his rival.

The detective disliked being so vulnerable but there had been no one else to turn to.

"Sorry," the magician apologized before taking out the watch and checking it under the table to get the time. Saguru looked around and noticed that they didn't have any clocks in the kitchen. The watch snapped closed and he handed it back it back to him so that his mother wouldn't see. Saguru put it in his pocket and felt himself calm at the familiar weight.

"Mom, after we eat I'm going to go over to my friends and see what we're going to do about his cousin. If they can't keep him, can he stay here for a while?"

"Sure."

Kaito's mother gave Saguru a bright smile and Saguru found himself smiling with her. He had no grudge against her after all and, although she had the same intensity, the woman was kind where Kaito was funny, calm where he was sporadic. It was a nice change.

"Saguru-kun, would like to stay with your cousin or with us?"

He tensed. It was nice but no one called him by his first name since he came to Japan besides his father. And he saw little of him as it was. It felt personal for a woman he had only just met, as much as he liked her, but he was supposed to be a child and he tried to hide his unease.

"I don't know." Saguru bowed his head. Given a choice between Kaito and anyone else, he would choose the unknown instead of the magician but he couldn't deny that Kaito had helped him more than he ever expected him to. And that put him in the magician's debt.

"Ah oh."

Saguru eyed Kaito, followed by his mother.

"What's the matter Kaito?"

"Nothing." The magician smiled but it was so weak that any negative comment would bring it down. "I just thought of something I forgot about."

The way that Kaito looked back at him, considering, showed that whatever it was the magician's mind had misplaced wasn't good. Saguru continued to eat and the rest of lunch was silent, though, Saguru could feel, it wasn't quite uncomfortable.

"I'm going to grab something from my room. Saguru-kun, you should come with me. I'll show you some magic tricks."

Kaito's mother smiled at them both while Saguru nodded. He was hardly interested in magic tricks. He'd seen through most of Kaito's – well, Kid's – tricks and they were the best. Mundane magic no longer interested him.

The white carpeted stairs, though dingy in spots, were soft under his feet and held a light sent of cleaner. He followed Kaito to his room, the second door on the right, and was surprised to see how neat it was.

A computer was perched on a light colored wooded desk with a comfortable chair. The bed, made with the tidiness of a perfectionist, was overlaid with a large blue comforter and white underside. There was a stray bag near the magician's garbage can but, other than that, the room was very open. No posters hung on his walls which failed to show Kaito's personality, and yet… it felt welcoming.

"What's the matter with you?"

Saguru noticed that his face left his thoughts on solid display for the magician and quickly turned away. "Nothing, I never assumed that someone as chaotic a specimen as you would live in such vapid accommodations."

"Was that an insult?"

"If you took it that way."

"Geez, I think you're even more annoying when you're small."

Saguru sat on the bed, messing up the folds. Though welcoming, the room seemed almost too clean. "Why thank you."

"That _wasn't_ a compliment," Kaito growled before sitting on the edge of the bed as far away from him as possible.

"So what is it that concerned you about me meeting with this person who, may I add, you have yet to give me the name of?"

Kaito looked away so quickly he wasn't sure if his eyes darkened or if it was a trick of the shadows. "I've never met him."

"You're taking me to some you've never met?" Saguru said in a flat voice.

"No, I mean. I've met him, kind of."

Saguru waited rather impatiently for Kaito to continue but he didn't. Saguru smirked.

"So, they only know Kid then?"

He had to admit, the magician was good. He didn't tense up like he had before and he didn't start trying to defend himself. The magician turned and simply smiled at him. "I'm pretty sure he knows the Kid. I don't see what that has to do with anything though."

"So it comes down to either admitting the truth to me, or revealing the truth to them when we suddenly show up and you state that you miraculously know them from somewhere."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Kuroba-kun I was nearly killed. I'd appreciate some compensation to be made on your part if your priorities will allow such a thing."

"Damn it." The magician took to tapping irritatingly on a leg he was also pushing up against on the floor. The bobbing motion shook the bed but Kaito's expression made any protests for him settle himself moot, if not dangerous, with the animalist expression on his face. "I can't."

"Can't what?"

His reward for his question was to be growled at again.

"Hakuba-kun, I can't."

"You know your simple act of denial is enough admittance. I'm not asking you to give me proof you know. I'll settle for you letting you call yourself Kid as a guise and not take it any further than that."

Kaito stopped fidgeting and he was grateful for it. It was starting to make him nauseous.

"That would work. I can-" Kaito stopped speaking aloud and glared at him. "Can I-"

"Kuroba-kun I will refrain from using your name, giving away information vital to letting on that I know you, and stay quiet. You will not be giving anything away to me by putting on a hat and calling yourself Kid. Anyone can do the same and it doesn't constitute as proof, though I could probably get you in an interrogation room. That was, of course, if I still looked like me. As it stands you have nothing to fear from my diminutive self."

"Point taken. No jibs about this as school." The magician got up and went to the bathroom.

"I promise nothing."

Kaito smirked before closing the door. "That really doesn't give me the incentive to want to help you."

The door clicked closed. It wasn't like Saguru needed to be friends with Kaito now, he simply needed someone, and the magician had been the closest. That wasn't to say that he didn't trust him. He was just unsure of what to do with that trust if it happened to be misplaced in the hands of someone who had, on multiple occasions, only humiliated and looked down upon him. Someone who, Saguru hated to admit, had answered his call for help when he didn't expect him to.

Kaito came back out less than three minutes later.

"What's with the hair? Aren't you going to wear a hat or something to cover your face?"

"Why would I need to cover my face?" The magician's words were said carelessly as he made to exit the room. "I'm not really a thief after all."

"And yet you've gelled your hair in a style I've never seen you with, going to meet someone who doesn't know who _you_ are."

Kaito put on a hat carefully over his new hairstyle so he wouldn't mess it up anyway.

"Happy? I've got my bases covered. Hurry up or I'll leave you behind and that destroys the purpose all together."

Saguru got off the bed slowly, more confused than he had been since he'd looked in the mirror that morning.

"I'll be back later Okasan!" Kaito shouted, hurting Saguru's ears as they walked out of the house. He gave himself a few seconds to be embarrassed at the outfit he was walking around in but he knew it could have been worse. With Kaito, there was always worse.

It occurred to both of them at that moment that he didn't have any shoes to change into.

"I'll carry you again," Kaito offered. He looked away.

"I'd rather not repeat the experience."

"Come on Hakuba-kun, they should have a spare pair of shoes. If not, I'm sure he's got money. I'm not about to go with you into a store and shop with how strange it looks."

"_He? They?_ How many people am I going to see? How does this help at all?"

"One." Kaito held up a finger and looked down, frowning. "I think. I'm not sure. I've had this-" The magician cut himself off again and Saguru was getting sick of not hearing the truth on a matter that obviously concerned him.

He sighed. "Fine, pick me up. I hope we're not going far."

"Just another bus ride."

Saguru drew up closer to him. Hiding the repulsive shirt was hard enough but it made his distantly non-Japanese characteristics stick out harshly. His skin was too pale, his hair too light, to make him anything less than completely obvious. As if to makes things less obtrusive, Kaito had taken off his school jacket for just his undershirt and the white didn't highlight Saguru's platinum blond hair.

"So who are we going to see?"

"Kudo Shinichi. He'll, hopefully, be able to help you. I'm going to vanish."

"I didn't plan on going to someone I've never met before for help. You're staying or I'm following you out the door." Saguru frowned. "Why do we need to go to him? From what I've heard, he's a difficult person to find."

"Not when you know where to look."

"You do know he's a detective. He'll be able to see through you."

"I'm not the Kid. What can he see through? I'm just going to be tricking him."

Saguru sighed, again finding himself in the magician's arms and waiting at the same bus station they departed from a few hours ago.

"Very well, have it your way. I'll be better when things are explained to me by someone on the same intellectual level."

"Insult me again and I'll drop you."

Saguru was met with something comparable to an evil grin and stopped his arguing. He was not about to be plopped on the ground, walking around in only socks, in the middle of Tokyo.

Before the bus came the magician whistled sharply. Saguru wasn't ready for it and the noise resonated loudly in his ears.

"What was that for?"

"I need to send a greeting to get his attention. Unlike you I can't go up to people and expect them to drop everything their doing in a split second."

"Forgive me for taking you out of school where I'm sure our fellow classmates are actually able to learn something with your absence."

"Okay, I'm dropping you."

He was suddenly aware that the magician wasn't bluffing. Because his legs had been held up and, unlike Kaito, he didn't have any cat genes in him, Saguru found himself quickly falling on his back to the floor. Something grabbed him by the ankle and stole him from gravity's grip.

He stared daggers at Kaito from his upside down position, shirt bunching over his chest.

"That was not anywhere near funny. Put me down."

"You'll get your socks dirty."

"Kuroba-kun put me down this instant or I swear that I'll make you pay."

Kaito straightened him out, fixing his clothes and resting him back in his arms. Saguru continued to glare.

"Sorry but I've had enough of your insults. If dealing with you in class weren't hard enough. But –"

Saguru frowned. "What?"

"I owe you. I'll help with whatever you need on this case."

"You owe me?" Saguru grinned. "I've done Kuroba Kaito no favors."

Kaito frowned. "Do you not like being right side up?"

The bus came and, once people had crowded around them it made it impossible to have a private conversation. Saguru didn't feel that he was owed anything. He didn't like working on a table where his conscience was used as the bargaining chip either.

It was only a few stops, not even twenty minutes before Kaito got off the bus. Saguru looked around. He hadn't been to this part of town before.

Another sharp whistle from the magician had him plugging his ears and cursing.

"Why do you do that?"

"She won't follow me if she can't see me. Sometimes she gets confused so I have to check in with her."

"She?"

"Yeah. Every good magician needs strange hands."

"Oh, a dove." Saguru pushed him, unable to get his point across any better in his small body. "You could have warned me. I would dislike being short _and_ deaf."

A rustle of feathers suddenly in both of their faces cut them off and Kaito sputtered before putting a hand up in the air, giving the dove a place to roost.

"Geez, don't get jealous just because you have to share me."

Saguru swallowed his indignation as Kaito paid more mind to gently positioning the bird on the tip of his hat, where he'd shown Saguru far less patience.

"Kuroba-kun, I noticed something."

"What is it?" Kaito tried to look down at him without startling the dove.

"You have no pictures in your house."

Kaito frowned. "So?"

"Why not? In fact, you're whole house are rather bare on your character. I didn't even see anything that could be used for a magic trick. A few flowers and the drapery spoke of your mother but, unless I had gone with you, I never would have guessed that was your house."

"I keep my magic tricks elsewhere," Kaito winked. "As for pictures, they're in books where they belong. Why would you want to be reminded of a time you could never go back to?"

Saguru was shocked at what a truthful answer he'd been given. The way Kaito looked made it seem like he thought that was the way things were supposed to be, as if it were normal. The magician must have caught onto his train of thought because his eyes went blank. "If you like staring at memories that are better kept in here," he put his hand to his chest, "than on paper, be my guest and keep thinking that way."

Kaito's eyes narrowed to look more like they did in the classroom when he'd yet to get back at Aoko in one of their little daily competitions. "And mom always yells at me when I leave stuff out so I make sure I hide it where she can't see it."

"By the way, how are you familiar with a detective?"

"I'm not going to answer that."

Kaito took the hat off as they arrived near an apartment complex. Saguru could see the Japanese kanji taped up on the windows of a dingy office building that the magician was looking up at.

He released the dove. Saguru had to wonder what they were doing at a place like that, let alone why Kudo-kun would be there when it was obviously not his house.

Kaito leaned up against the wall of the building next door and grinned. "Now we wait."


	4. Two for the Show

For the sake of my sanity, since I'm not used to writting in thrid person, all characters will be referred to by their first name  
Unless another character is actually speaking to them, and then will be addressed correctly.

Thank you so much for reviewing! I've never had this many reviews per chapter EVER! Not even on my  
other stories! Thanks! (and don't stop now that I've said that ^_^)

And yes, I am a fast updater! Sometimes it's hard to get time to go to the library but I post as soon as I'm  
finished, and look it over of course!

_**

* * *

**_

_**Chapter 4: Two for the Show**_

The dove had flown off to rest near the large window and Saguru watched Kaito put something into his ear, having to put him on the floor to find what he needed. Saguru moved his feet so that he wasn't standing on any pebbles.

"And what is that?" he smiled.

"Nothing," the magician countered. "What are you talking about?" He held up his hands innocently and the ear piece was put on the other ear so that Saguru couldn't examine it.

"Fine, play dumb."

"I always win at that game."

Saguru sighed as Kaito started chuckling at him. The magician went quiet as he tried to listen in on whatever it was that he was picking up. Kaito shook his head and whistled again, this one quiet and high pitched enough that Saguru was shocked it came from a human and not a machine. He rubbed his ear from the vibrations.

"How do you do that?"

Kaito took his fingers out of his mouth and grinned. "Practice."

The bird flew off around the side of the building where Saguru couldn't see it. Kaito remained silent as he listened. Saguru was tempted to do something to distract him, to simply make things not go the way the magician had planned. It wouldn't help him and he knew the urge came from Kaito often getting the upper hand in their arguments so he didn't act on it. At least, not while he was still small. Kaito had the advantage at the moment.

The magician grinned and looked up before letting out two sharp whistles that didn't require his fingers. Saguru could have sworn he heard soft banging from somewhere nearby.

"So, your bird is your messenger? Do you two talk often?"

"I've never done things this way before because _I am not a thief._"

"Right, so you want me to call you Kuroba-kun?"

Kaito stiffened. His dove was flying back to them now and he placed it regally on his shoulder before looking almost hurt at Saguru. "Please don't."

Saguru gave up, letting Kaito go this time. "Very well Kid-kun."

Kaito's lips twitched up into a smile as he looked away to focus on the stairway off to their left. A few minutes later Conan walked out.

"What are we-?"

"Shhh." Kaito put his hands up to his lips for Saguru to remain quiet.

"Hello Conan-kun!" Kaito waved. Conan froze where he was before walking calmly over with his hands in his pockets, as though it were natural to go up to a stranger who somehow knew your name.

"What are you doing here Kaitou Kid?" Conan asked in a dull voice.

Saguru's eyes widened. _Conan knew Kuroba was Kid?_

"I've got something I need to talk to you about."

"Who says I'll listen?"

"You did come out under my invitation so I thought you'd stay long enough to hear me out."

Conan sighed and looked around Kaito to focus on Saguru.

He felt himself being identified by someone who was now just slightly shorter than him. Saguru looked back and could tell he had a good two inches on Conan. The other boy frowned and looked up at Kaito.

"So you're kidnapping people now or is this some trick?"

"No trick. I need to talk to you privately. _We_ need to talk to you privately," Kaito corrected himself. His words were jaded where Kid's were normally playful and Saguru didn't know if he was trying to sound serious or he simply wanted to keep himself and Kid as far away from each other as possible.

Conan caught on and Saguru saw a spark of higher intelligence in his eyes as he glanced down the street.

"Is it important?"

Kaito nodded and picked Saguru back up before he had a chance to ask any of the many questions that were currently afflicting him. "Be quiet for now." Kaito whispered to him. Saguru nodded.

Conan sighed after watching the small act. "I know somewhere we can go if it's really that important that you've come to me."

"I can think of no one better," Kaito told him. Saguru was beyond confused. Not only was Conan calmly walking with someone he knew was a criminal, though he didn't know why Conan had never tried to turn in Kuroba before if he knew, he was also not the person that the magician said they were going to be meeting.

Silenced by Kaito's earlier words, he looked around the neighborhood as they made their way down the street. It wasn't that much different than Kaito's, though there seemed to be a lot more businesses where his had been more residential.

In fifteen minutes they made it to a large mansion that looked nothing like Saguru's, though it shared some of the same western design. Where Saguru's was brick, this one had dark colored siding and looked more like a haunted house. The iron gate added to the touch.

Conan handed a key to Kaito who, again Saguru had to wonder how much they knew about each other, accepted it and opened the lock with familiarity. It was Conan whose eyes narrowed and was able to voice his concerns.

"Have you been here before?"

"Once," Kaito admitted. "I had to clean my clothes after that motorcycle incident and didn't want my mom worrying. It was your fault after all so I didn't feel guilty about barrowing your laundry soap."

"Don't go in my house." The threat was real and Saguru was surprised to hear it come from someone so small. He frowned. Saguru knew he was missing something but he couldn't figure out what it was.

"Then you want to have this conversation outside?" Kaito raised his eyebrows.

"Don't go in my house _without my permission _then."

Kaito put his free arm over his heart, fingers brushing against Saguru to get there. "Promise." He grinned. "But then again, what good is any word coming from me?"

Saguru had enough and smacked him as hard as he could on the back of the head.

"Hey!" The magician turned on him.

"Explanation. Now. I'm not going to sit here while you argue."

"Fine, fine." Kaito looked down at Conan. "You wouldn't happen to have an extra pair of shoes in there, would you?"

"Yeah."

Saguru could feel Conan's eyes on him again and on his socks which must have been dirty since he'd been put down.

Kaito opened the door for both of them since Conan seemed too short to be able to reach it comfortably and Saguru was still in one of his arms. The magician let him down when they got inside and he put on a pair of slippers.

"I hate when you do that by the way," Conan mumbled to Kaito. Saguru frowned.

"I can't help it. Because of – circumstances, I would have been too obvious as I waited for you."

Conan went into the living room and they both followed him. Saguru didn't want to ask any stupid questions since they seemed to have some understanding of one another, while he was being left out to dry.

Conan sat on a couch in the living room and Kaito took a seat in a chair, motioning for Saguru to come over to him. He was not going to be sitting in the magician's lap. He equally didn't want to be left out so he stood against the arm of the chair and looked up at Kaito intently.

"First things first, Kudo-kun. I'm going to need you to be honest with me."

Saguru's breath caught in his throat as his mind figured out what it had been trying to piece together. Conan's strange behavior, Kaito's admittance to seeing what had become of him before, the fact that the boy had the key to a house that couldn't have been his.

Conan saw the fascination cross his face before he could right himself again. The boy showed nothing but concern and hostility with the way Saguru had reacted. Conan darted his eyes to find Kaito's.

"What are you playing at?"

"Kudo Shinichi," Kaito bent over and picked Saguru up, putting him on his lap anyways, "meet Hakuba Saguru."

"H- Ha – Hakuba-kun?" Conan's eyes widened and he stood gaping at them.

"Oh, you've met already? I figured you'd run into each other sooner or later." Kaito waited for the boy's eyes to return to normal and they looked bleakly at one another. "So, care to explain some things?"

Conan looked at Hakuba, a few traces of doubt still there but resolved into something that Saguru had only seen in other detectives; a mixture of curiously and concealment.

"What happened?" Conan asked, interlocking his fingers and lowering his voice.

Saguru watched him with a new respect. He knew that Conan was intelligent but he had never realized that he could be someone he could be on even terms with without looking foolish. "I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. You?"

Conan nodded. "Give me the details."

Saguru smirked. "You first."

They were at a standoff, each weighing the determination of the other until Kaito broke the silence with a heavy sigh.

"Kudo-kun, as you have had this happen first, you should be the first to explain."

"Why do I need to explain myself to you?"

Saguru watched as now Kaito and Conan – no, Shinichi, had a staring contest.

"Because," Kaito said after a few tense moments, "Believe it or not, Hakuba-kun is my friend and I'm not going to let this go."

Hakuba jerked, turning to look at the sincerity in the magician's eyes. Shinichi sighed.

"I have another Hattori running around."

Kaito smirked. "I always thought he knew about you."

Saguru blinked, trying to take in all this new information.

"How did you know? About me I mean."

The room was silent and Kaito seemed to recede in on himself. "You got me curious. After our little meeting I purposely antagonized you to see what you would do. When you acted the way I would expected someone like Hakuba-kun to, I became even more interested. A few bugs at the professor's house told me the rest."

"You bugged his house?" Shinichi hissed.

"I didn't think you would like me saying that. Don't worry, once I found out I took them out. I'm not some weirdo listening in on all of your conversations."

"If you know about me you must have heard about _them_."

Kaito looked confused now. "Them? I know you mentioned that you were looking for the 'men'" Kaito air quoted, "who did it but I got nothing more than that."

Shinichi sighed. "Fine but this doesn't leave here. I want to know what happened so I'll make an allowance this one more time but this is not happening again," Shinichi spat. "I'm sick of people sticking their nose where it doesn't belong."

Saguru found resting on Kaito's leg was uncomfortable and cutting off his circulation so he moved next to Shinichi before the other started talking so he wouldn't interrupt. Shinichi looked back at him and studied his features.

"You really are Hakuba-kun, right?"

Saguru nodded. "I have no way of proving it though."

Shinichi shook his head. "I believe you."

Another wave of warmth flowed over him. Besides the stupid magician he now had someone who, against any earlier judgment, could understand his predicament. Someone who was another detective and had already been through what Saguru was going through. It made him sad at how little he thought of those around him. Maybe Kaito had him guessed right from the beginning.

Shinichi explained his run in with men dressed in black, the way he'd been poisoned, and what he'd been doing to date to stay off of their radar. Saguru shuddered when he'd been given a different description than the one of those who had attacked him. They were clearly working with each other and their group had to be large to act so candidly.

"What happened to you?" Shinichi's eyes glowed with a light that showed he'd been trying to control himself as he relieved his own experience. Saguru sighed and retold his story for a second time that day. When he was finished Conan looked downright miserable.

"What's the matter?" Saguru asked. He looked up when Kaito had made a movement, the magician closing his mouth as Saguru thought he'd been about to ask the same thing.

"There's no doubt that I was popular but my parents keep everything they can from print. Your father is a high ranking officer. He won't let your disappearance go unnoticed and that means _they'll_ be looking out for you as well. After all, how could a dead man walk away?"

"So? They'll be looking for me, not a child." Saguru was confused at what was worrying Shinichi.

"Yes but one child detective draws a crowd. I know you won't be able to sit back and watch crimes be committed anymore than I could. They're going to catch on."

"If it's my life that's at stake I don't mind sitting on the sidelines. Kudo-kun I may be a detective but I'm no fool. Showing myself will also give you away and I don't want that."

Shinichi still looked miserable. Saguru felt like he was cutting off his own hand with his words but he had meant them.

"We've got another problem. Where will you stay? The professor already had me and Haibara."

"Who?" Saguru asked. Kaito's eyes narrowed and he smiled.

"Thought so."

"Wait." Saguru put his hands up. "What else are you not telling me?"

Shinichi sighed. "Sorry, it slipped my mind. Haibara is a girl I know. She's in the same situation we are and I'm trying to keep her safe. She-" Shinichi closed his eyes, debating how much to say. He sighed again. "She used to work for them. She was one of their scientists and also the one who made this poison."

Saguru's eyes widened. "Then you know how to stop this?"

Shinichi shook his head. "Her notes are gone and she hasn't been able to figure out the formula yet."

"I have a lab and the necessary equipment, will that help?"

Shinichi stared at him with his mouth partially open as he was about to answer him when something else crossed his mind. He smiled.

"It might help," he said enthusiastically. "I'll ask her. You can call your father and tell him that you're alright but you've gone… somewhere, and need him to look after her. I don't think the professor would mind if you stay over then."

"I'd rather stay at K-" A hand suddenly covered Saguru's mouth and he could see Kaito give him an icy glare. He tapped him to show he understood before turning back to Shinichi. "I have somewhere I can stay."

Shinichi looked at them both and Saguru knew he wasn't fooling him. Kaito having stopped him for saying his name was enough.

The other boy nodded anyway and practically ran out of the house. "I'm going to talk to Haibara right now. Don't go anywhere."

"Where would we go?" Kaito said sarcastically but Shinichi was already gone.

Saguru turned to him. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"What are you talking about? I couldn't give away someone's secret, not when they wouldn't have wanted me to. It's not right."

"I can see how you would respect something like that."

Kaito went quiet.

"Did you not want me staying at your house instead? I prefer the company of Kudo-kun but you offered and I'd hate to pass up on the chance to get a look at you."

Kaito pulled the cap back out of his coat and messed up his hair so it was back to his original style before putting it on.

"I shouldn't have offered until I knew if Kudo-kun would let your stay or not."

"Are you regretting it?" Saguru asked with an acid undertone.

Kaito looked down and pulled the cap so that Saguru couldn't see his eyes. "No."

Saguru's mind supplied him with pictures he'd seen of the detective years ago. He'd discovered them when Shinichi had been involved in one of Kid's earlier cases.

"He doesn't know who you really are then?"

Kaito's blue eyes met his, even with the shadows being thrown across them and Saguru felt himself become frozen under the magician's watch.

"If I'm not really me now, then who am I?"

Saguru tried to ignore the heavy feeling that had come over him when the magician spoke. There was something dark there, something he had never seen before. It wasn't pertaining to Kaito himself but to something he'd experienced or come close to. Something that the magician had somehow projected onto him, with Saguru's own circumstances weighing him down as it was.

Then Kaito smiled and the heavy feeling was gone as if it had never been there.


	5. Roommates and Relatives

_**Chapter 5: Roommates and Relatives**_

"So, you want me to leave?" The little girl glared at Shinichi far more sinisterly than Saguru had ever seen, especially coming from someone so young in appearance.

"Hakuba-kun has a lot of things that Hakase doesn't. If he stays this way, someone is going to catch on and it seems like the Organization is back to using the poison."

"What good would it do him then, even if I could perfect the antidote? Neither of you can be seen."

Shinichi shook his head. "Hakuba-kun's not that well known in Japan. He can go back. It was dark out and I'm sure that no one caught much more than the fact that he was foreign. As long as they don't find out his name it should be all right."

"Fine, but I'm going on record as stating that this is a very bad idea." Ai turned around and put her shoes on. "So what, I'm going to be going to his house now?"

"No, I'll see if I can't get you into the actual lab. I'm sure my grandfather would listen to me but… I don't really sound like me."

"Here." Shinichi did something with a bowtie around his neck and handed it to him. "Speak into it and it should be fine."

"What is it?" Saguru was surprised when his voice, his older voice, resonated out of the small material. "That's amazing."

"Helpful too."

Saguru nodded and took his phone out of his pocket. Calling his grandfather would come first since he needed to know if he could use the lab in isolation. The phone rang for a while but Saguru was patient. His grandfather was getting old and it made the man slow. He'd disengaged the answering machine for him when he came back to Japan so that the old man would have time to get to the phone before the device told the caller he wasn't home.

His grandfather was almost always home.

"Hello?"

"Ojiisan, it's me." Saguru waited while his grandfather fixed the phone to better hear him.

"Hello there Saguru. What do I owe the pleasure?"

"I'm on a case right now and one of the people involved has a child. I can't take her with me so I was wondering if she could stay in the research lab. I'll be in an out for a while and I need her safe."

"You're going to make my employees angry again Saguru. You know how much they hate it when you take over."

"I only want the lab. I'm sorry but I need somewhere where she can't be seen. Can I have it for at least two weeks?"

"You know I could never say no to you." The old man sighed and Saguru smiled. Out of all his relatives, his grandfather was the one he took after and thus, had a special bond with him.

"Thanks. I'll be there tomorrow then so you have time to give them a vacation. I'm sure you won't mind making it a paid one either."

"I spoil you too much," he heard him laugh. "Very well, I'll do it."

Saguru thanked him again and bid him goodbye before handing the bow tie back over to Shinichi and turning to face both him and Ai. "We'll go tomorrow then so that my grandfather has time to clear it out. I can get you anything you need so feel free to ask."

Ai looked back at him. Saguru hadn't been told her real name but he didn't need it. As they stood next to each other, he realized how alike they looked. His eyes were a light sky blue where hers held a green tinge but, other than that, they could have been twins.

"English." Ai smirked at him. "You?"

Saguru nodded. "My mother."

The smirked changed into something that could have been a reminiscent smile. "Mine too."

"Well, I'm out of here."

Saguru caught Kaito's pants before the magician got far.

"Oh no you don't. I said I was staying with you. I'm not passing up this opportunity."

Shinichi gave him the strangest look. Saguru had to remember that he only saw Kid standing in front of him and didn't care to notice he wasn't wearing a disguise. How Kuroba could still deny it was impressive.

"You're going with him?" Shinichi looked over at Ai, and Saguru had to wonder what they were silently communicating to each other. One of Ai's shoulders slumped and she gave Shinichi a crocked smile.

"Do I have to?"

"I would be easier. I don't have to worry then."

Her eyes narrowed. "You're right. That would be dangerous." She looked over at Saguru and up at Kaito. "It makes things easier so I'm going to go with you as well apparently." She held up her hands as if the decision was not her doing.

"Why?" Kaito asked before he could.

"Because you're the most conspicuous person I know and leaving Hakuba-kun with you will be dangerous. Haibara will be there to keep you in check."

Shinichi glared at the magician but they were both smiling as if playing some imagined game between the two of them, moving invisible pieces to try and get the better of the other. Saguru smiled at Shinichi, realizing how alike they were in more ways than the current.

"I'm not going to take her with me as well Tantei-kun. Hakuba-kun is more than enough."

"Why? He knows who you are doesn't he?"

Kaito held his ground but his eyes narrow. "In what aspect?"

It was strange watching them smile through the conversation. He caught Ai's glance and they shared the same uninterested look at the stupid competition the other two were waging.

"Can we go? It doesn't matter much and if it's that big of a deal to you, I could stay somewhere else."

"That would be perfect."

"I was being sarcastic," he barked at the magician. "Besides, you're mother will miss me."

"Your own mother will miss you as well."

Saguru could see Kaito was trying to shift the conversation away from his personal life but Saguru was willing to keep up the game, throwing in his pieces with Shinichi's.

"Considering how much I've seen and guessed, yet cannot prove, you're still going to deny Ai-san a place to stay for a single night out of fear? I didn't think you were so cowardly."

"It's not cowardice, its suicide. I'm not going to be baited."

"Who's trying to do that?" Shinichi added. "Hakuba-kun's question seems legitimate."

Kaito growled.

"Considering you're all less than four feet tall you're not going to win."

"And considering we all have an IQ of over 50 points on you, there's no way we can lose." Saguru grinned. The comment had come so naturally that he didn't fully realize he was being rude in front of other people. His smile faltered when he noticed he felt fine to be rude in front of the magician but no one else.

Kaito seemed to notice it as well and grinned at him. "Fine but you get to explain her to my mom. I'm busy today."

"Busy doing what?" Saguru couldn't see how the magician could find time to be busy when two people, one of them not definable as a friend and the other a complete stranger, were going to be at his house.

"It's none of your business."

"Very well," he conceded so that they could leave. He didn't feel rushed, but Saguru disliked sitting still when there was work to be done and places to go.

Shinichi and Ai stared at each other until she smiled at him and the boy let out a breath. "Thanks."

"No problem. If I find an antidote, I can't give it to you."

Shinichi's eyes were hard but he kept his face neutral. "Good, I can't take it just yet. I'd like to know it's there when I need it though."

"Kudo-kun, before we go, can I barrow those shoes? I don't feel like letting… Kid carry me around- You know what?" he turned to the magician. "She'll just tell Kudo-kun you're name so there's no point in keeping up this charade.

Kaito froze as if just realizing this. He was silent, eyes staring unmoving at the wall across from him while his mind tried to think of some alternative. It was like he wasn't thinking straight today. Something was on his mind but Saguru couldn't tell what it was pertaining to. All he knew was it was upsetting the magician's ability to think and perform, so it must have been important.

"I can't have that." Kaito looked down at Shinichi. "I'm sorry Tantei-kun, but I can't. Hakuba…" Kaito paused before continuing "Hakuba-kun already knows more than enough and you have a nasty way of upsetting my plans that he doesn't."

"I could care less about your name right now." Shinichi met Kaito's eyes with all the sharpness of a knife. "I've got more important fish to fry and Hakuba-kun's a target. If keeping him safe means you need to reveal information to me then _please_, do so. I won't use it against you. Think of it as self-preservation and I'm keeping myself safe by default if you need to."

Kaito shivered at his words. Saguru wondered if he could ever make such a promise.

Kaito looked down at him with something close to pleading but it was hidden behind a filmy glare of indifference. "Then let's make it simple and say I'm Kaito. I know that's not much but you're the only one who calls me by my last name. Please don't."

"Okay Kaito-kun, I won't." The alien feeling of closeness in saying his first name left Saguru with a strange aftertaste.

Shinichi nodded. "Don't worry, I won't pry. Not when I need the help as well." He turned to Saguru and held out his phone. "What's your number?"

Saguru recited it to him. He was tempted to give him the magician's number as well if he couldn't be reached but phone records were the easiest thing to trace and, against his better judgment, he felt it would give Shinichi a head start on catching Kaito before him. At least, that was what he took the uneasy feeling to mean when the idea had crossed his mind.

Shinichi walked with them until they were forced to part ways further down the block, Mouri's house being in one direction and Kaito's in the other.

"I'll see you later Kudo-kun," Ai waved to him offhandedly. Shinichi nodded.

"I can't believe I'm doing this," Kaito sighed. Saguru grinned and he even noticed Ai give him a similar smile.

"Don't like being looked down upon?"

Kaito glared at his joke but it didn't hold the same cutting that his earlier looks had. In fact, the magician seemed to default somewhere between serious and gloomy.

"What's the matter with you?" Saguru asked him. Clearly he was the one who should be acting that way. It puzzled him now that he had a chance to think about it, why he wasn't feeling more downtrodden. It wasn't as if he enjoyed being a child. In fact, he was desperately waiting for his twenty-first birthday so that he could fight back if anyone called him such a thing.

"I didn't really know how much trouble you'd gotten yourself in before now." The magician tilted his hat but it didn't carry the same effect it used to because Saguru could still see his eyes with his new height. Kaito looked like he was in pain.

"I'm taking care of it aren't I?"

"You can't take care of people like the ones you ran into easily. I know. I've tried. Don't let your guard down."

He had never heard Kaito speak so seriously before and his words bit into him along with a mass of questions that he wanted answered.

"What do you mean, 'you've tried?'"

"Doesn't matter." Kaito kept his fingers on the brim of the cap and turned it away, realizing he was revealing his emotions to them. "Take what I said into consideration."

"He's right you know."

His attention was drawn to Ai as she spoke up, face equally as drawn but with sarcastic smile in place of Kaito's easy one.

Saguru ignored both of them to grin down at the floor. "Oh, I'm sure there's a way. Acting like that won't help matters and I'm not one to give up easily."

Kaito smiled at him but it was guarded with a certainty that the detective couldn't place. "Don't worry. I'm just telling you to watch out. I know everything will be fine."

They waited for the bus again, Kaito forced to pay for all of them. Saguru didn't like feeling any more indebted to the magician but it couldn't be helped. He'd make it a point to pay him back.

Both of his companions remained silent on the bus ride but it wasn't a long one so Saguru didn't feel compelled to start up a discussion. He simply enjoyed the fact that no one forced him or Ai out of their seats when the magician had to get up for an elderly man as the bus filled up.

Upon reaching the magician's house, Kaito took off.

"Where are you going Kur- ah Kaito-kun." Saguru shook his head. It would take some getting used to but he wouldn't reveal more about the magician than he'd already let slip. That didn't mean he was going to be using any other honorific while he was in the magician's company, even if he was little.

"I told you it's none of your business. I'll be back in a few hours for dinner."

The magician waved a hand backwards at them as he walked away with little care for what they did outside of his company. Saguru wouldn't pass up the opportunity to snoop if Kaito was going to so boldly present it to him.

A sudden stab of pain made him think it was because Kaito trusted him. Further thoughts on looking into the magician's life left him with a guilty conscience so he knocked, waiting for Kaito's mother to answers, with no thoughts other then stray ones in the back of his mind which he ignored, on looking in on the magician's secret life.

"Hello Saguru-kun!" The woman greeted him with a smile that could have won over the heart of any man. "What are you doing out here? Where's Kaito?"

"He left," he said with a shrugged and, consciously trying to fit the part better, gave her the most innocent smile he could. "He said he'd be back later."

"Oh of course." The woman's eyes rose and her face turned sad. "I thought as much. I'm sorry. You coming here almost made me forget that he had plans."

"Where'd he go?" He asked, trying to feign indifference to the answer.

"He went somewhere only he could go on his own. Don't worry about it." Kaito's mother smile but he could see she was hiding something.

_It probably has something to do with Kid. He's most likely preparing to steal something right now and I had the perfect timing of coming into his life before he was finished._

Saguru smiled, taking her answer with surprisingly no disappointment.

"Okay," he told her. There was plenty of time to figure out Kaito's plan and he could stop the thief if it came down to it. Helping him or not, Saguru was not going to stand for pilfering on his watch.

Ai smiled and caught Kaito's mother's attention, though the woman's eyes only cleared partially as she seemed to be thinking what her son was up to as well. "Who are you?"

"Haibara Ai," she introduced herself. Saguru tapped her lightly on the shoulder and was surprised at the sudden tenseness that came over her. Ignoring it until later, he looked up.

"She's my cousin. Kaito…" Saguru had to bite back on his words. Swallowing he went on. "Kaito-niisan wanted to know if she could stay as well."

"Of course. The more the merrier. It might help Kaito."

"What do you mean?"

His probing eyes on the woman were shot back at him, and he noticed her examine him again with something more clear, as if seeing through him. She let it go.

"It's nothing."

Saguru and Ai walked in, one looking puzzled and the other not seeming to care what happened. He could feel that they had a commonality with each other, which was why he hadn't argued with Shinichi to let her stay, but her coldness to any comment he made left him with no words.

Kaito's mother was nice enough, even if she seemed to play a part in her son's activities. He could learn to like it here with them.

Then again, maybe he was jumping to conclusions too fast.


	6. Dream Catcher

Stupid site. Sorry, apprently this uploaded funny and no one said anything. Well, I fixed it now.  
sorry

* * *

_**Chapter 6: Dream Catcher**_

Kaito was true to his word and returned a few hours later, somehow making it just as his mother was about to serve dinner.

Saguru had kept himself busy by going though Kaito's books. It wasn't as bad as searching his house and some of the titles on the bookshelf in the main room caught his attention.

The Woman in White was the first that made him abandon going back up to the magician's room and seeing what he kept under his bed. It was a detective book after all and an old one at that. Saguru found the story somewhat compelling, even with the lack of present day terms, but had known of very few others who had read it. Most police officers and detectives out there weren't very well read in fiction after all.

It was a newer version with a different cover but the same story. The next book that caught his attention was Fundamentals of Analytical Chemistry. The pages were marked and worn to show they'd been read. A few creases in the corners of a page further in even showed it had been read more than once.

He couldn't fathom someone like Kaito finding that interesting.

Of course, he then came to a book on mythology and a few pertaining to creation. He even stumbled across a couple fairytales he remembered from when he was little. It didn't surprise him much when he found a book on gemstones and another one on the mineral workings of diamonds, iridium, and others.

He was paging through one of these when Kaito returned. Seeing him, Saguru held up the book on analytical chemistry. "Have you really read this?"

Kaito froze and his eyes grew guarded, as if he'd forgotten Saguru was going to be there. That set the detective off and he noticed that Kaito's clothes were dirty at the knees and sleeves.

"What have you been doing?"

"Nothing." The magician shook off whatever was bothering him faster than Saguru could examine it. With an easy smile, he answered his first question. "Yeah I've read it. I needed to."

"For what?"

Kaito grinned and slid a finger across his lips in a childish gesture to show he wasn't going to tell him.

"While you two seem to be having a nice conversation, I would like to eat now."

Ai stuck her head in from the kitchen and made them both jump, though Kaito hid it. Saguru had completely forgotten that she was there, so engrossed in Kaito's book selection as he was, that he had ignored her completely. His disliked that. Girls weren't to be ignored, no one was.

"What have you been doing?" Saguru asked, coming into the kitchen while Kaito waited, wanting for some reason to be the last to enter.

"I've been talking with Kaito-kun's mother." Ai smiled up at the woman and Kaito's mother smiled back down at her. "Kuroba-san is a nice woman."

Kaito twitched and Saguru could see his integral injury as Shinichi now had his full name. At least he could go back to addressing him as he always did.

Wait, how had Ai just addressed the magician?

Saguru felt nervous when Kaito's mother looked down at him. Kaito-'kun' was certainly not the way you addressed someone who seemed to be older than you.

"Well Saguru-kun, you could have told me who you were to begin with," the woman narrowed her eyes and glared so hard at Kaito that the magician flinched back, "or my son could have told me. There's no need to lie."

Saguru swallowed. "You know who I am?"

"Yes, Ai-kun told me. I knew something was up when you started reading one of the French books and following the words. There's no way a child, even an English one like you, would be able to speak three languages so well, let alone read them. Kaito," she glared at him again, "should have said something."

"Sorry Okasan. Don't let anyone know okay? It's really important."

"Don't you think I would have been able to figure that out on my own? If they're here with you and something of this magnitude – which yes, it took me a while to believe – happened to them, then of course it would be something I knew to keep secret."

"I said I was sorry." Kaito sprawled back in his chair but Saguru saw something dark in the magician's eyes that he'd catching glimpses of all day.

"I'll forgive you because I'm sure you've had a lot on your mind today. Don't lie to your mother though."

"I won't do it again."

Kaito had his head back in the chair with his eyes closed so that Saguru couldn't read him. For Kaito to be hiding like that meant that he wasn't able to pretend to be happy like he usually would. He was so accustomed to seeing the magician performing that he hadn't noticed he been acting genuinely towards him all day.

"What's the matter with you?"

Kaito opened his eyes and looked up as if he had been napping. Maybe he was just tired and Saguru had read him wrong.

"Don't push it."

Ai was the one who answered before the magician had gotten an answer together. Saguru turned towards her and saw a dark look behind sad eyes.

"But you know." He stated it as a fact, which it was.

"His mother told me but it really is none of your business and, seeing as you already took most of the day from him, I wouldn't be surprised if Kaito-kun disliked you at the moment."

"As if he's ever liked me," he retorted. He didn't mean it but he couldn't understand what it was that he was missing. Kaito's eyes met Ai's and they shared a similar look of pain and understanding.

Saguru let it fall. It was obviously something that Kaito cared about deeply. It couldn't have something to do with Kid, right?

After tracking back and forth between towns and getting almost no rest, Saguru couldn't deny that he was hungry again so he ate instead to trying to make conversation that would lead him to an answer. Now that he was in the magician's house, Saguru was starting to realize how little he actually knew about him besides what the magician portrayed as Kid. He certainly had no time to notice anything more than his fights with Aoko at school.

"You sure are a lot moodier when you're not acting like an idiot." Saguru spoke up when he'd finished most of noodles of the Sukiyaki that Kaito's mother prepared, and most of his meat was gone.

"I'll be better in the morning."

The mumbled answer to something he hadn't asked was startling enough but what drew Saguru's attention outward was the fact that Kaito hadn't touched any of his food, and was back to slouching in his chair with unfocused eyes.

The magician had to be doing it on purpose and, as a detective, was taunting Saguru with a puzzle that he wasn't given any pieces to work with. Ai's hand clamped around his arm, keeping him from rising himself on the chair to demand answers.

Saguru glared at her and the despondent expression her whole body was emanating was enough to halt all of his suddenly wild urgings for answers. He deflated like a balloon would with a hole in it.

"What?"

"Calm down. You're intruding somewhere you shouldn't. Sit still and mind your own damn business." The words were whisper quiet and hard. She turned away from him and smiled at Kaito's mother. "The food is really good. You should save it."

"I think I will. Thank you for the compliment. Want to help me make breakfast tomorrow?"

It was strange but all of the little girl's smiles had some dark layer of intent under them. Now they were clear and honest, her coldness a thing of the past around a woman she couldn't have known more than a few hours. Both Ai's and the magician's sudden change in attitude left him reeling.

Ai and Kaito's mother started discussing preparations for the next day and, if Kaito had heard Ai's whispered conversation with him – he should have – he said nothing about it. Kaito simply went back to staring at nothing and leaving the food in front of him untouched. Why he'd even come back home if he wasn't going to eat, Saguru couldn't say.

When diner was over they all congregated in the main room, Kaito following behind everyone else like a rear guard. The magician found a corner that was clear of similar boxes that filled up parts of the room, and was far enough away from the couch in the center that he wouldn't feel crowded.

Kaito was not an antisocial person and his behavior was setting the detective on edge. If not for his lethargic attitude, Saguru would have thought that there was danger nearby.

"Kaito, you don't have to stay if you don't want to."

Kaito and his mother shared a glance that spoke of years worth of understanding. Kaito nodded and got back on his feet.

"I'll be back tonight, so don't worry about me."

Shrugging on his coat, the magician left the room in the same dismal mood that he'd been in all day. Saguru ignored the atmosphere and turned on the television, finding mostly cartoons and childish fables until he settling on the news.

The blandness of the commentary only made it less interesting than Saguru was already finding it. News was never exciting unless you were there. Hearing about the deaths of people you didn't know was just morbid and the backed-up traffic at the stations was nothing new.

It was tedious and dull to the point he wanted to fall asleep where he sat.

Ai and Kaito's mother were off in the corner, looking at photo albums. It was something to do and it was better than watching the same drawl as the news came on again after it had just ended.

"Saguru-kun," Kaito's mother looked up at him when she heard the click of the TV turning off and his socked footsteps. "Do you want to look too?"

"Not really." The magician's past was not very interesting to him but he'd already gone through the books on the shelf. At least, the ones he could reach. He was not going to be asking for help to look at the others.

He sat down next to Kaito's mother as she held up a book from when Kaito was a child. There must have been a school play or something because Kaito was in the picture wearing a large basketball shirt and shorts, sweatband worn sideways on his head, while he was standing next to a cardboard cutout of a bush, another boy hanging off his shoulder in what looked like a doctor's outfit.

Kaito couldn't have been more than eight years old in the picture and yet he didn't hold the same smile that he did now. In fact, he wasn't smiling at all in the picture and the boy on his side was looking sympathetically at the camera as if apologizing for the magician.

There were other pictures and Kaito was smiling in those, but the one of the play kept dawning his attention back to it.

Kaito's mother turned the page and Saguru was once again shocked at what he saw.

Aoko was in more of these. One side showed them both attempting to make cookies. Saguru knew they must not have been very successful because the magician's hair was covered in dough and Aoko was frowning at him. It was the way Kaito looked completely unabashed by her anger that had Saguru looking closer.

It seemed the magician was unemotional throughout most of those pictures. If his mother ever did catch him smiling on film it was some small weak thing that Saguru could never have dreamed him putting on if he wasn't seeing it.

As they progressed, Kaito started looking more normal. His shoulders wouldn't sag and he no longer pretended to be happy. He looked genuinely so. Teeth were shown a lot and Kaito tried to do his best to make each picture exciting. One that was taken of the whole class in, what must have been around the time he was ten. It had everyone surrounding him absolutely soaking wet with Kaito in the middle, grinning like an idiot and equally as wet.

"What happened before?" Saguru asked, unable to turn back to the other pages because he was on her right.

"Kaito was going through a lot. He didn't have the best childhood." It was all the explanation she gave him, and Saguru could understand it. He hadn't had the best childhood either, mostly due to the fact that he was forcibly moved to England at age seven to live with his mother.

"Who's this Kuroba-san?"

"You know I'm not that young and you're not that old. Call me Chikage-obasan."

Ai nodded, not feeling reprimanded at all. "So, who is it?"

"Oh, she was just a friend of the family. I wasn't well acquainted with her. Her boy's cute though, isn't he? I haven't seen them in years. Toichi was sent that photo years ago so they must be older now."

"Who?" Saguru stood up to see what Ai was looking at, curious enough have isolated and inquired about only one photo when she'd been sitting there for over an hour already and silent about the people in any other photographs. Someone that looked a lot like Shinichi stared out of it with his hands held behind his head, smiling. There was a woman crouched behind him smiling too.

"They know each other?" He looked up at Kaito's mother but she seemed confused at his question.

"I haven't seen them in years. Why? Is something wrong?"

Saguru shook his head. What a coincidence. If they had stayed close, maybe Kaito would have never had the opportunity to be-

He shook his head. Enough of that.

Kaito walked in the door then, and ignored them all. Going up to his room as Saguru heard the sound of another door close.

"What's his problem?"

Kaito's mother put a hand on Saguru's shoulder. She griped him in a reassuring gesture. "Since you're going to be sleeping with him I'll tell you. Ai-kun's going to be with me and I will not let you sleep in the main room."

She took the book off of her lap and laid it back in one of the many boxes around the room; the shelves already being filled.

"Kaito's father passed away some time ago. Today's the anniversary of his death. We went to his grave early this morning and I knew Kaito wasn't taking it well. He practically woke me up at four in the morning so that we could get there before the sun rose. He even insisted on going to school once we got back. When he showed up with you looking so full of energy again, I thought he was better. But I was wrong. Let him be tonight."

Saguru swallowed before nodded. "I was wondering where your husband was but it kept slipping my mind to ask and I didn't want to be rude."

Kaito's mother smiled. "He died years ago in an accident. Kaito was only eight. It was hard on him. He admired his father so much, as a magician and as a person. Imagine having someone like that taken away from you when you're that young. I can handle it better."

Saguru nodded. It certainly explained Kaito's behavior. He hadn't missed the fact that, apparently, Kaito's father was a magician as well; but now was not the best time to pry.

"I'm actually pretty tired. I didn't get much rest the other day."

Though she couldn't understand his words, Kaito's mother nodded and went to the closet to bring out bedding for both of them. Saguru took his from her and followed her up the stairs, Ai remaining downstairs to put a few of the other books away.

He waited patiently while she set up what would be Ai's bed next to hers, before following her down the hall to Kaito's room.

Kaito's mother knocked first, waiting for her son to answer.

"Come in."

The listlessness in his voice was apparent. She entered and Saguru followed her footsteps almost meekly for once. He didn't know how to behave around someone he'd formulated a picture, specs, and design of so long ago, suddenly so different and yet transparent at the same time.

Kaito was on his side and it looked like he was trying to sleep, though his light had been on. Saguru helped the woman sort out the bedding before bidding her a good night and hearing the magician repeat his words in whispered tones.

"Goodnight, both of you," Kaito's mother said back, turning off the light. Though uncomfortable, Saguru soon found himself asleep by utter necessity.

…

The detective jolted out of slumber, eyes opening but body remaining still as a noise broke through his dreams and woke him; the total silence of the house making it all the more prevalent.

The sharp sounds were indistinguishable as first as Saguru's brain took in his environment. His eyes could see before his brain could reason so the first thing his waking mind noticed was that some grey bulge in his vision was moving. His brain filled in the rest slowly.

He was in Kaito's room. He knew that. So that must be Kaito on the bed that was moving. Next, the noise was coming from inside the room, close by, so it was either coming from the magician or something near him. Lastly, whatever was making the noise sounded like it was in pain.

Saguru sat all the way up, hearing the sharp intake of breath come from Kaito. It sounded like he was hyper-ventilating.

"Kuroba-kun, are you all right?" he asked, rubbing his eye, night vision already active so he could see in the almost complete darkness around him. The magician didn't answer him.

He got up, putting his hands on the bed and leaned over to see if there was anything he could do. Kaito seemed to be shaking, breathing in hard enough to hurt his lungs.

"Kuroba-kun, calm down. You must be dreaming."

His words had no effect but once he placed a hand on Kaito's shoulder, his body seemed to relax. The minute Saguru took it away the magician started acting up again.

"I'm too tired for this," Saguru sighed, taking his blanket and laying on top of the sheets next to Kaito so that he could get some sleep. The magician didn't take up much room so Saguru had his space while simultaneously comforting him. If it weren't for him being half out of it and mad, though he couldn't place where his anger was aimed towards, Saguru would never have had the gal to think it was okay to sleep next to Kaito.

It wasn't much but Saguru owed Kaito a lot. A hell of a lot. He didn't think he'd still be there, what with how dangerous Shinichi had made the people he'd seen that night sound, if the magician hadn't come to his rescue on a day he shouldn't have even had his phone on.

Saguru stayed awake for a while, fending off whatever nightmares were plaguing Kaito, until he couldn't do it anymore. He was still there, still by his side, but Saguru needed sleep too so he fell unconscious again, hand wrapped tightly around the back of the magician's night shirt so that the other boy could still be comforted by his presence while he slept.

He wasn't woken again until morning.


	7. Companions and Conniptions

**Chapter 7: Companions and Conniptions**

Saguru blinked his eyes open, unmoved from his position last night. Kaito was still asleep so he removed his hand carefully, taking his blankets with him and bringing them back downstairs where he'd seen Kaito's mother remove them.

He felt dirty, still wearing Kaito's shirt from the other day. He should have thought to ask Shinichi for some clothes while he'd gotten an old pair of white shoes from him. Kaito's clothes were likely only to be more repelling as the magician gave him what deemed as 'acceptable' and made its way to outrageous.

Kaito's mother was awake and already making breakfast with Ai. He could smell the eggs cooking and the strong scent of the onion that went into the Miso soup.

"Is Kaito awake yet?"

Saguru shook his head and sat down at the table, hating his new height as it made it difficult to get up onto anything. He must have had it better than Shinichi though, being tall for his age and having heritage that made him thus.

"Saguru-kun, your hair is so pretty," Kaito's mother said, drying her hands on a dish towel before running her fingers through his hair.

"Thanks, I don't really…" He shut himself up.

"You don't get it a lot huh? It's no surprise there, you are in Japan. It's really soft and this shade makes you look ghostly, almost like an angel. Sad that it got darker as you aged."

"You know what my hair-"

"Saguru-kun I do watch the news."

He nodded, understanding and yet slightly startled by her statement. If she watched the news then she would know that he and Kaito were on opposing sides. Kaito's mother didn't seem to care about that though. She'd even gone as far as to let Saguru alone in Kaito's room when he could have easily been noising through anything he wanted while the magician slept. Stopping to think, he realized Kaito was treating him with the same respect. As if they weren't even supposed to be enemies.

The magician came down about ten minutes later, lured by the smell of the food. Saguru watched him eat this time, seeing as he'd been with him all day yesterday and, though the magician ate lunch with him, he had only noticed in retrospect how little Kaito had eaten.

"Morning." Kaito took the chair out in expert hands before spinning it in a circle and sitting down in it just as the rotation stopped.

"Morning Kaito. What are you kids going to be up to today?"

"I don't know." Kaito put his chin in his hands, eyes clearer than they had been. "I have a few things I need to take care of myself, and then I think I'll drop Ai-san off." The magician turned to the girl. "I can get you every night and bring you back if you want."

Ai nodded, more at ease sitting near the magician's mother then he'd ever seen her. He couldn't judge much on that though, since the only other time he had seen her was with Shinichi.

"What are you going to do?" Saguru couldn't help but ask, knowing he wasn't going to get an answer.

As he expected, the magician only grinned, more teeth showing than strictly necessary. "What fun would it be if I simply told you? Just try and stay out of trouble while I'm gone."

"I'm not a child." Saguru resented being looked down upon, let alone being told what to do.

"I know that. It's just – you detectives don't know when to let things rest sometimes."

Ai sighed from next to him in agreement.

"What, exactly, have you felt unsatisfactory towards in my methods?"

"I wasn't trying to insult you Hakuba-kun, I was just saying be careful. After what happened yesterday, you can't say you've been taking precautions."

"How was that my fault?" He couldn't help it, Kaito was getting him mad again. Saguru knew that he hadn't had the best day yesterday, but he didn't have to blame it on Saguru's lack of basic knowledge on the safest course of action. "Anyone could have gone on the roof and seen them!"

Kaito's eyes were shadowed with anger and Saguru could see by how taunt the magician held his hands that, had he been a normal person, they would have been shaking. Putting his hands on the table before getting up and walking away, Kaito said nothing.

Just because Kaito returned his anger, didn't mean the detective was going to let him walk away while the implications still hung between them.

Saguru got off the chair and followed, paying no mind to the glances of the females behind him. It didn't matter if he was acting sophisticated or not. It was an impossible feat in the body of a child and a hopeless cause in any case.

He found Kaito sitting on the couch and holding the arm too firmly in his grasp. Before he could say a word, Kaito barged in like he usually did. And, as usual, Saguru was surprised by what he heard.

"I sorry, I wasn't trying – I would never tell you – ah… I'm just… sorry."

"Sorry for what exactly? I don't speak mumble."

Kaito sighed and let go of the arm rest like a large bird would a branch, movements stiff and claw like where the magician's were normally smooth. "I've no right to tell you what to do. I didn't mean it. Go out there and save someone's life. Go solve your mysteries. Just, be careful."

"I wasn't planning on acting like a fool while you were gone, though you have left me wondering where it is you're going."

Kaito chuckled darkly. "It feels like we're never on the same page."

"Do you want to be?" Saguru didn't know where the question had come from and, while he wanted an answer, at the same time he felt that any answer given to him couldn't be taken at face value. After all, it wasn't a question that the magician would answer easily.

"It would make things easier but there is precedence that we hold separately, that the other person would never be able to accept. Because of that we'll never be on the same side. I just wish we were on the same field. It's hard to read you sometimes."

"You think I'm hard to read?" Saguru raised an eyebrow. "Try switching places."

Kaito laughed, turning his head to the side. The tension from the other day was slowly seeping out of him, and the magician was able to hide more of his emotions than he had in the last twenty-four hours. "I see your point."

"I don't think there's that much of a gap between us." Saguru let his eyes flash, knowledge about the thief's motives only recently gained. After he'd watched a man die, Saguru was starting to realize where Kaito's priorities lay. If he'd stayed behind a second longer, the magician would have been implicated as the murderer.

But Saguru knew that wasn't it. Knew it because they'd chosen a spot that so easily held in foot prints and he was able to follow the path of that night's actions.

Before that tragedy, Saguru had only run into Kaito twice as Kid. Once when he had first seen him, leaving a rather unimpressive image of the magician's abilities, and the second when he was more focusing on besting the magician at his own game, than seeing the severity of the crime in front of him.

Kaito's eyes were focused on him intently as he thought, arm coming up to rest his head at an angle best suit for one way surveillance. The magician sighed after a moment. "See? I have no idea what you're talking about." Kaito got up and messed up Saguru's hair before looking back over his shoulder and winking. "It doesn't matter though. If we understood each other I'd be worried that one of the two of us was going insane. It would be the only explanation for how it was done but…" Kaito's smile turned gentle. "Thanks."

"For what?"

"Last night. I promise it won't happen again."

Kaito left, door closing softly behind him. Saguru felt a mixture of sympathy and anger at the statement. It made it sound like the magician had been apologizing for getting upset. Kaito had every right to be, and it wasn't like Saguru hadn't been expecting something similar. He disliked the outlook that the magician must have in order to say something like that. It was the stupidest promise Saguru had ever heard.

"Well Hakuba-kun, can I assume that you're going to stay put?" Ai asked from around the corner.

"Of course not. I've got things I want to check into."

Ai sighed. "I thought as much. I guess I'll have to go with you. Kudo-kun can be trusted with that girl to keep him in check but you," her voice was quiet but her words weren't as hard as he expected, "I don't know. So, where are we going?"

"My house." Saguru scratched his head. "After I shower and get some different clothes. I have to get some decent outfits from the store and I need my money for that. I can't very well go shopping alone, so I'll need to see if Kuroba-kun's mother is free this afternoon."

"That sounds nice actually." Ai focused her gaze on him. "Not very detective like at all."

"I'm a human before a detective, and frankly I don't want to know what I'll have to wear before I get some clothes of my own. I'll be needing another outfit of his for the time being, so I'm not in this dirty one."

"You shower then. Chikage-obasan and I will find you clothes."

Saguru frowned. "Why do you address Kuroba-kun and his family by their first names?"

Ai's body tensed up and her eyes darkened as soon as he'd finished his sentence. "Firstly, I was told to address Kaito-kun that way. By him. Secondly, his mother told me the same thing. I am staying at their house and it would be impolite not to listen to them."

He felt as if she was lying to him. Whatever the real reason was, it was lost under a wall of anger and indifference that Ai put up as easily as Kaito hid behind his smiles.

"Fine. I'll be out in a while. Tell Kuroba-obasan that I'm using her shower."

Ai only nodded, looking away from him and going back into the kitchen where Saguru could hear dishes being washed, clanging against each other softly at different intervals.

Kaito's bathroom was just as stark as his house. There were light blue tiles across the floor, white crisscrossing lines covering the spaces between the little squares. It was small and the walls were a light shade of blue as well, that was almost impossible to see unless compared to the white of the shower nozzle.

Taking a shower was a lot hard than he thought it was going to be.

The nozzle of the shower hose was impossible to reach. Saguru was simply too short, so he had to pull on the connecting wire until it fell, almost slamming against the tiles when he barely managed to catch it. The water he could reach but the mirror he was too short for and could only glace at the top of his head.

Sighing, he rinsed himself off. The obscuring glass door behind him was closed, but being in someone else's house to shower was making him uncomfortable. It was most likely his years in London getting to him, but it felt too personal, and he rushed to get the shampoo in and out of his hair. It didn't take him long to wash the rest of him, with how small he was.

Wet and covered in a towel, Saguru peeked out the door. There were clothes there and he could already feel that he didn't want to put them on.

He picked them up anyway and closed the door quickly. Saguru dried himself off and, after putting on boxers with clown faces on them, and the normal looking white shorts, Saguru looked at the top.

He definitely needed to get some clothes of his own.

The detective slipped it on anyway. It was a white shirt with black sleeves that made him look like a panda when he put it on. The words on the front were what bothered him. The shirt declared proudly that he was 'Too Cute to Care.'

Japanese katakana placed under the English letters allowed everyone the right to read it.

Saguru didn't like that at all.

"There wasn't anything better?" he asked the two of them when he made his way down stairs and found Ai sitting on the couch with Kaito's mother, as she sorted out some papers that Saguru took a glimpse at. They looked like letters.

"No, there wasn't. There's a bright blue one with a picture of a teddy bear wearing and eye patch and another one that's yellow with a sun wearing sunglasses and smiling if you want one of those."

Saguru shook his head, picturing them.

Kaito's mother smiled. "I didn't think so. They only got worse from there."

He looked down at his panda-like outfit. It really wasn't that bad.

"Can I borrow money for the bus? When I get back to my house and retrieve my own, I'll pay you back."

Kaito's mother shook her head. "You don't have to do that. Here" She dug out enough money for both his and Ai's bus fair, going and coming. "Ai-chan told me you wanted to go shopping. I'll clean up and be ready when you return."

"It's not necessary." Saguru tried to give her half the money back, he'd have his wallet to pay for the return trip, but she wouldn't take it.

"Keep it. I'll leave Kaito a note, telling him I'll be a little late with lunch. I don't think he'll be home before us anyways, but just to be safe. Now hurry up before it gets too late."

Saguru had no choice but to accept the money. He didn't like the feel of it in his pocket. He disliked when he was given something for no reason. Gifts were okay, but money was important and, even though they weren't poor, Kaito's family had less of it than Saguru did.

Ai slid silently off the couch and followed him. Saguru could feel nothing from her. As good as Kaito was at hiding things, this girl had him beat when it came down to it. Though the better actor, the magician lost when it came to stoicism.

They walked to the bus station in silence. Saguru didn't really know what to say to her. He was polite to girls, but speaking with them normally still left him feeling uncomfortable when there weren't any topics at hand.

"So, you're staying with Kudo-kun," Saguru started out, testing the waters. "I haven't seen you before."

"I haven't seen you either. You two must not have run into each other much. I'm not his lap dog in any case. I don't follow him around like a little puppy."

Saguru nodded, not having anything to say back to her harsh remarks.

"So you haven't been involved in many cases?"

Ai glared at him and Saguru was unsure of how to take it. Instinctively, he backed off; a few inches growing between them.

"I've been involved with more than I've care to be. I don't have the same interest in the dead as he does."

"No, dead bodies aren't something pleasant."

Ai seemed to relax in his company. "You're different. Why is that?"

Saguru didn't know how to respond because he didn't know what it was that he'd been asked.

Ai waited with open eyes and hands held lightly behind her back. "Kudo-kun, if you were anything like him, wouldn't be worrying about what he was wearing. In fact, I doubt he would have left Kaito-kun's house without some answers. Worse yet, he actually started looking for the people who had poisoned him the second he could. You don't seem to be worried about that."

"There's nothing I can do about it right now. I don't try and change things that are out of my control. Right now I need money and I need clothes, so that's what I'm taking care of."

"And you're a detective who doesn't like dead bodies?"

Saguru chuckled softly. "I don't think anyone likes them. But no, I don't go looking for them. After I was transferred to division two, I've tried to keep my hands off the blood work and onto the logical portion associated with crimes instead."

"You can't always use your brain to fix things."

"Look who's talking." Saguru had meant it as an offhanded comment. After all, the girl wasn't a detective. If he took what Shinichi had said into consideration, she was likely to have studied the same subjects he had, before detective work because common place.

She didn't take it that way.

He had to stop or lose her. They were almost to the bus station and it would only be a five minute ride to his house. Ai didn't know where it was though, so he couldn't leave her behind.

"What's the matter?"

"Nothing." A smile drew part of her lip up but Ai clearly wasn't happy. "I hate when I'm hypocritical and I don't even mean to be."

Saguru closed his eyes, thinking about his words this time. "I don't really know what it is you want me to say. As for your earlier insinuations, then no, I don't think I'm anything like Kudo-kun. I'm a lot slower in my progress and I'm aware of it. I've lost to him a few times because I overlook things that I shouldn't be overlooking when my focus is elsewhere. I don't like that happening anymore, so I take my time. As for matters using my brain, anything I can't figure out, I'm willing to put effort into. I don't drop something simply because blood is involved or because I can't figure it out right away. Does that help?"

Ai's smile turned genuine. "Slightly. You're still a strange person."

"I've never been called strange before. What do you find wrong with me?"

"You're straight forward and yet subdued at the same time. I'm sure you give your fair share of people headaches trying to figure you out."

That was the second time in the same day the Saguru had been told he was hard to read. He honestly didn't see it himself. If someone asked him something, he was truthful. That was common courtesy. He didn't see anything that was contradicting in his nature.

"Forget it. You're still a detective and I'm sure you're going to overanalyze what I said so forget I said anything. As for going to your house, how do you plan on getting in?"

"I still have my key and the woman who watches over me won't be expecting anyone to come in from the back. As long as we're quiet, it should be fine."

And it was. They were on and off the bus quickly. Saguru used his key and got into his house, unnoticed by its lone occupant – who must have been worried when he hadn't returned – and retrieved his money on a card under a separate account that he kept for emergency purposes.

Ai stayed outside and waited for him patiently. Then they were back on the bus and Saguru was making notes to himself, most of them requiring the magician's help. He needed to cancel the cards that were stolen and he needed to have Kaito call his house so that Baaya wouldn't be worried about him.

Now, on a lighter tone, all that was left to do was go shopping. That would be easy and, as much as Saguru hated to admit it, he was desperately craving normal at the moment.


	8. Kaleidoscope

I have a deviant art account now and put a pic of what I think Saguru would have looked like up on  
my profile page if anyone is interested. ^_^

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_**Chapter 8: Kaleidoscope**_

The detective sat on the edge of one of the racks, letting the cool metal of the bar touch his bare skin as it brushed the side of his leg. The girls were off somewhere, hopefully far away from him.

He hadn't known just what he was getting into when he proposed the idea of shopping.

Kaito's mother, though soft spoken at home, was a completely different person in the shopping world. She'd tried to get him into so many different outfits that Saguru actually had to hide from her to keep some of his dignity in tact. Crawling on the floor on his hands and knees was better than looking at some of the outfits that woman wanted him to put on. And he'd thought the ones he had been borrowing from Kaito were bad. Of course, Kaito probably liked his mother's style.

Ai wasn't any better. She and Kaito's mother were having fun shopping for her as well. Saguru had offered to buy her some clothes and, as against the idea as the girl was, she was ecstatically looking for something that she and the magician's mother could agree on.

"Boo!"

Saguru jumped when another boy had crept up on him. He couldn't be spotted from above, but below the clothes line was fair game.

The boy laughed at his startled expression, eyeing him as he took in Saguru's appearance.

"Are you foreign?"

Thinking as fast as his could while adrenaline was still running through him, Saguru nodded, "Partly."

The other boy smiled, dark hair parted in the middle and freckles taking up most of his face. "I thought so. You can speak though, can't you?"

Saguru nodded again, almost insulted by the accusation.

"Why are you hiding?" The boy looked around, trying to see what it was the Saguru could be avoiding. "Is you're mom around here or something?"

"Yeah," Saguru lied, leaning back into the clothes more, so that the boy wasn't in his face. "Don't draw attention."

After a minute Saguru saw Kaito's mother and Ai come around the corner and ducked down further.

"Are you hiding from Haibara-san?"

Saguru stared at him, blinking slightly in confusion. "You know Ai-san?"

All the friendliness that the boy had been offering was wiped away in an instant, and he was staring daggers down at him. "How do you know her?"

"She's my cousin." His words were quiet but the lie came out easily, as if it were natural.

"Oh, you're cousin." The boy's expression disappeared and he sighed. "Good."

"What's good?" Saguru was still confused.

"Nothing." The boy ducked back out of the clothes rack, turning back at the last second. "Just so you know though, you can't hide from Haibara-san."

As if on cue, Ai poked her head in less than a minute after the boy walked away.

"What are you doing Hakuba-kun?" She asked, voice having made him jump as Saguru tried to calm himself down.

"Nothing" he said lamely.

"If you want to look for something, you can. Chikage-obasan and I are almost done, so she shouldn't bother you."

Saguru nodded numbly, feeling as if he was being scolded. Looking down at his clothes, he sighed. He really needed to get something decent.

The kid's section didn't have anything he was looking for so he settled on less casual shirts than he normally wore. None of them were even button down. The main thing was that he got himself some boxers of his own. He greatly disliked wearing someone's old underwear.

Saguru took his clothes over to the girls when he was finished, buying seven shirts and an equal amount of shorts, settling on a few pairs of socks as well.

Ai smiled at him. "Thank you. I haven't gone clothes shopping in some time. I never had the money for it."

He shrugged, smiling back. "It's no trouble. You're helping me as well, so I should be the one thanking you. If you need any assistance, I could go to the lab with you as well."

Ai shook her head. "I do my best work alone."

Saguru nodded. He felt the same way. He couldn't handle more than one other person running around while he was working on something, and that one person was only allowed to stay so that Saguru could focus on his work and not have to scamper around for everything he needed.

"They're all so plain Saguru-kun. Couldn't you have picked something more colorful?" Kaito's mother asked when he hefted his clothes onto the counter.

"No thank you. I'm rather set in my ways at this point and don't like when my clothes make me stand out. I have enough trouble as it is with my hair."

"Oh but I love your hair." Kaito's mother bent down and ran her hands through his hair again, brushing a few strands that had falling out of place because of its softer texture. He had faint memories of one of the housemaids who worked for his mother in England doing the same thing, and yet none of his mother.

It felt very comforting.

"Boo!"

Saguru jumped and he watched Ai spin around, looking ready to fight whoever was behind them. Kaito smirked, looking like a five year old who'd just been given a slice of cake. "Did I scare you?"

"I've had enough people do that to me today, thank you." Saguru put a hand to his forehead, feeling it shake. He didn't like being snuck up on. Ai relaxed quicker, the predator look leaving her eyes to be filled with a softer kindness.

"Hello Kaito-kun. I hope you enjoyed that because I certainly didn't."

Kaito grinned back at her. "Of course I did. What fun would it have been if I'd have told you I was there? None at all. Might have even made me seem normal and I wouldn't like that."

"So you have to act abnormal all the time?"

Kaito's eyes were too watchful and Saguru felt as if the magician was seeing more of him than he wanted him to. A hand on his shoulder made him twitch back.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you that badly."

"You didn't." He brushed the magician's hand off, feeling how his body still wasn't under his control. It wasn't as if he could help being scared, what with someone having almost killed him less than two days ago. Saguru was still having a problem with not jumping at shadows.

"Right, my bad, I took the fact that your shaking to mean I scared you. I guess you're just cold," Kaito snapped, eyes on him but half closed.

Saguru ignored him, folding his arms over his chest and turning away, eyes focused on the counter. "Kuroba-kun, there is a difference between being scared and being startled. Though you fancy yourself a bad guy, I am not frightened by you or your little tricks. Startling me, you are good at. Scaring me? Impossible."

Kaito grinned, letting a breathed out laugh escape him. "If you can talk back to me like that, I guess your fine. For the record though, the dictionary would disagree with your reasoning."

"Kaito, what exactly is it that you're doing here besides-" Kaito's mother paused, "surprising these two. I told you in the note that we'd be back soon. I haven't even started lunch."

"Yeah, but I was in the area," Kaito shrugged, "and I've got nothing to do at home." The magician went over to the check out desk and placed a small laser pen on the counter, taking out a few bills.

"What do you need a laser pen for? I hope you don't intend to bring it to class."

"Why do you care? It's not like you're going to be there."

Saguru clenched his fist. Kaito saw it and sighed. "Sorry. No, it's not for class. The one for my radio broke so I need to get a new one."

"Radio?"

Ai smiled next to him, looking up at the magician. "You're making your own radio? It's rather complicated."

"No," Kaito looked away, contemplating. "It's not just a radio exactly. It can be, but I'm using it as a transmitter. I-" Kaito looked down at him. "I need it for something. The voltage was too high the first time and I blew the circuits."

"Then you'll have to rewire it."

"I know that." Kaito glared at her. "I just need a new pen. I already took care of the rest."

"If you diverted too much power-"

"Hakuba-kun, I don't need your input either. I've got it."

He hadn't even realized he's spoken. There was no need to help Kaito when he was evidently up to something that would be either really bothersome in class, or a good distraction for the police.

"My mistake." He leaned against the counter as Kaito took the small plastic bag, as well as Saguru's two that held his new clothes in them. Picturing a transmitter that used a laser pen, Saguru couldn't help as the schematics of the thing entered his mind. Kaito winked at him as they started out of the store.

"Feeling better?"

Saguru froze where he was, looking up at the magician. Kaito stopped as well a few steps ahead of him and the magician's mother and Ai waited further ahead.

"What?" Kaito asked, seeing that he didn't plan on moving.

"Is that why you told me about it? So that I would get my mind on something else?"

Kaito shrugged, the bags rustling. "I guess."

"You didn't have to do that. What if I messed with your little gadget before you went to use it? It would be easy."

"Well, I'd probably get really mad at you, and maybe hang you out my bedroom window until you apologized." Kaito turned his head up, thinking about it. "Maybe something that wouldn't scare you as much. Why?"

"It's nothing." The magician shouldn't be doing him any more favors. He didn't expect them. It was nice, but Saguru wasn't used to compassion aimed at him, not only from Kaito but from anyone. He started walking again, tipping his head to the side. "Come to the washroom with me."

"Why?" This time Kaito was really confused.

"I swear, if you thought something dirty you are one sick person. I would like to change my clothes, now that I have them. I feel very uncomfortable in yours."

"Oh. And what do you mean 'if I thought something dirty'? I was just wondering why the hell you would need help going to the bathroom!"

"Of course that was your first thought," he said sarcastically.

"It was!" Kaito growled.

Saguru grinned back at Kaito. That was better. He liked it when they were fighting. It was normal, natural. A little support here and there for either of them was acceptable, but it wasn't how cats and dogs acted. Of course, Saguru thought of himself as the dog. It was too bad that the cat could always climb the trees out of his reach.

Kaito frowned when he noticed that his attitude changed, getting angry. "You know, you're like a damn kaleidoscope. It's really annoying."

"At least I'm not like a chameleon. Better there be a different version of me inside, then a completely different person both inside and out."

"I'm not like a lizard," Kaito grumbled, pushing open the door when Saguru had trouble with it. It really was heavy.

Saguru went into the end stall, larger than the others with more room for him to change. He didn't want to be stepping in whatever happened to be on the floor. He took the bags from Kaito, watching the magician slouch against the wall and close his eyes.

"Are you feeling okay," Saguru asked on reflex. Last night the magician hadn't been at his best and, now that they weren't near his mother, Kaito looked downright sick.

"Yeah, I'm fine, why?" Kaito tipped his head, eyes bright and shielding so that he couldn't read passed them.

"No reason." Saguru closed the door, knowing that Kaito's guard would be up after his comment. He should have waited and seen how the magician acted when he didn't know that anyone was watching him.

Digging into the first bag with the shirts, Saguru took out a striped top; the lines were think and golden, mixing with white. The collar was also yellow and had a few buttons near the neck that really were pointless, more for aesthetic appeal than anything else.

There were beige shorts that went nicely with the top and some plain white boxes that he was much happier to be wearing.

Saguru left the stall and, as he thought, Kaito looked composed again.

The magician smiled, letting out a soft laugh that wasn't insulting.

"What's with the bright colors? I'm so used to seeing you in black, it almost looks funny."

"I don't want to wear darker colors right now." Saguru unconsciously gripped his left arm with his fist.

Kaito's smile disappeared, only to reappear a second later. "Sorry. I didn't think about that when I gave you those clothes the other day."

"It's nothing," he shook his head. "They were yours and well worn, so I didn't get- It didn't bother me." And it was the truth. Even wearing black and having the blood stain paint on it, knowing that it was Kaito's old clothes had it hold a lighter significance.

"Well Canary-kun, let's get out of here before mom thinks you fell in the toilet."

Saguru nodded, feeling better in new clothes, but for some reason he missed the feel of Kaito's. They were softer, made of cotton where his were polyester and itched from time to time. Most formal clothes came with a compromise, and he almost missed not caring about that. Letting himself wear whatever he wanted. It wasn't as if anyone was watching him now.

They found the girls waiting for them around the corner, eating.

"Mom I thought you said you were going to make lunch?"

"This is so much easier Kaito. And besides, I'm hungry now."

"I was hungry as well. Fast food won't kill you, if you eat it in moderation."

Saguru laughed. "What do you have against food that could kill you?" He looked up, expected some mocking retort. What he saw scared him.

Kaito had his hand on his forehead and his eyes closed again, swaying slightly where he stood.

"Kuroba-kun-"

"I'll be fine," Kaito said, putting a hand out and catching the table to steady himself. "It's nothing. I'm just a little dizzy. It's my own fault for not eating yesterday."

"Kuroba-kun, you ate this morning," he said quietly, suddenly filling up with uncontested worry. If the magician was showing him that he was ill, then he must have been too sick to hide it. "You shouldn't be feeling like this."

"Kaito…" Kaito's mother's worried tone echoed his.

The magician couldn't seem to find his balance and the arm Kaito was holding onto the table with shook slightly. Saguru put a hand up to catch the magician's shirt.

"Sit down."

Kaito smiled softly. "Can't."

The magician fell to his knees, Saguru's hold on his shirt the only reason he didn't fall over and collapse onto the floor.

"Kuroba-kun!"

But Kaito was in no condition to answer him - wasn't in any condition to even stay upright on his knees. Saguru had to put his arm around him to keep the magician straight as Kaito drifted somewhere between inattentive and unconscious.


	9. Old Nightmares

**Chapter 9: Old Nightmares**

Kaito's mother came to kneel on the ground next to them and took her son's weight off of him. Kaito didn't so much as stir as she transitioned him to lay against her instead.

"Kaito." She stroked the magician's face. "You should have stayed home if you were sick."

Ai was next to them too, though Saguru didn't know when she'd gotten there.

"He's sweating but his heart rate isn't that fast." Ai took her wrist and held it against Kaito's forehead, wiping some of the perspiration away when she was done. "He has a fever. Lay him down on the ground until he wakes up."

Kaito's mother nodded, placing her son on the floor and trying to make him as comfortable as she could.

Saguru just stood there, unsure of what had just happened.

"I told him to stay home. I knew after last night he shouldn't be moving around." She sighed. "I should have been watching him."

"It's my fault." He didn't want to speak up but he had to. "I'm the one who made you leave and I noticed Kuroba-kun wasn't looking too well a few minutes ago. I should have made him tell me what was wrong."

"No, you didn't know." Kaito's mother took out a cell phone, dialing with one hand as the other held Kaito's shoulder, his head laying limply against her, making the magician look more vulnerable than he'd ever seen him.

Saguru remained quiet. This obviously was none of his business. Ai followed along, though she made sure that one of her hands was on Kaito's shirt.

"Ginzo-san? Hello, I'm sorry I'm calling you but I need a ride home. Kaito-"

Saguru looked up, hearing the Inspector's voice, loud and bad-tempered over the phone.

"Yes, it happened again. I'm not letting him out of the house next time, even if he tries to get passed me. I don't understand why he does it."

He could hear the Inspector grumbling again and couldn't catch the words. Saguru knew that Kaito and Aoko were close, but he didn't know how attached the families were to each other. Clearly intimate enough for the Inspector to have predicted the phone call.

Kaito's mother nodded, thanking him and saying goodbye. She put the phone away and held both her hands, welcoming Saguru towards her. "Come here."

He followed, confused. Kaito's mother dug into her purse, frowning when she came across something that shouldn't have been in there. Pulling it out, there was a light brown wig.

"If Kaito expected this, he is going to be in so much trouble when he wakes up." Though her words sounded threatening, her tone held so much distress that it sounded more like she was about to start crying.

Kaito's mother took the wig and placed it on his head, hands sure as if she was used to doing such things. Saguru didn't say anything about it.

When she was finished, his hair resembled Ai's, if not slightly darker. The wig itself was uncomfortable, but that was because he wasn't used to wearing them. If he had put in any Dolce & Gabbana outfit, he would feel perfectly at home.

"Saguru-kun, Ginzo-san knows you right? What do you want me to call you in front of him?"

"I don't know," Saguru shrugged. He wasn't a very creative person. All the names that came to him were either there because he disliked them, or too unpopular to sound reasonable. He snickered, realizing where Shinichi acquired his name.

Kaito's mother put a finger to her lips as she thought, looking thankful to have something to take her mind off of her son's condition.

"How about Harou?"

Saguru thought it sounded harsh. His own name sounded so gentle that reacting to the new one would be difficult.

"Why Harou?"

Kaito's mother smiled. "Your first and last name mixed together sounds like it. Hakuba Saguru. Harou."

Saguru smiled. "That makes sense. Why not Haru though?"

She frowned. "I don't like that name."

He laughed at her honesty. "Okay then, call me what you wish."

Kaito's mother messed up his hair, well the wig anyway, but it messed up his real hair as well. She looked down at Kaito more calmly than she had before. "Stupid son of mine is going to give me a heart attack one of these days. He should really learn to take better care of himself."

"But why did he come out here, and why did you make that phone call? Is this something common?" Saguru tried not to sound like a detective but it was hard. It was who he was.

"It is common unfortunately."

"Stupid kid!" Saguru jumped at the sudden noise of the doors being slammed open behind him. Nakamori walked in with all the brute force and anger of a wild gorilla. Narrowing in on them with eyes that were sharper than they seemed, the Inspector stomped over towards their group.

Nakamori knelt down next to them, looking hard at him and Ai.

"Who are the rug rats?"

"Friends of the family. Their parents were busy and I offered to take them. I wouldn't have let Kaito out of my sight, but he- nothing happened last night."

"What do you-" Saguru covered his mouth with his hand to keep himself from talking.

The Inspector narrowed his eyes at him.

"You have foreign friends?"

"Was that an insult, Ginzo-san?" Kaito's mother smiled, getting the man's attention back on her. "Yes I do have friends that are that aren't from Japan."

"Right, sorry." The Inspector shook his head and stared daggers down at Kaito.

"Dad, wait for me!"

Saguru spun around again, this time less surprised as Aoko pushed the doors open, breathing hard and waiting until she caught her breath before taking her place behind her father and looking down at the magician.

"Baka Kaito. He does this every year."

"At least he wasn't at our house this time."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Aoko turned on her dad. "You like him passing out in the middle of the store?"

"Of course not Aoko, but he scared the hell out of me last year."

"This is that frequent?" Saguru put his hand over his mouth again, forgetting what he looked like.

"So, who exactly are the kids, and what are they doing here?"

"That one's Harou-kun and this is Ai-chan. They're cousins and I'm going to be watching them for a few weeks."

Nakamori nodded. Having gotten his information he turned back and moved Kaito so that he was able to pick him up.

"Come on, I'll take you home. If Kaito-kun does this next year too, I'm going to lock him up in a jail cell."

"As if he'd stay in there."

Aoko and her father both let out a sigh of agreement, and Saguru wondered how on earth it was that they didn't think he was the Kid if they knew his talents lay in other less reputable places as well.

The Inspector lifted the unconscious magician, stumbling under his weight.

"Are you sure you can carry him?" Kaito's mother asked.

"I carried him last year and I'll carry him this year. He does seem to have put on some weight though."

"That or you're just getting old."

The Inspector let out a rough laugh. "Well if I'm getting old then so are you."

They got along so well. The Inspector didn't fight Kaito's mother back, even when her words could have been taken as an insult. Saguru started to understand just why it was that the Inspector always got so mad when he tried to prove Kaito's guilt. He liked the boy. Not only that, but he appeared to be as close to the magician as he mother was.

Walking out of the store, they looked like a family. Saguru knew that Kaito had no father and that Aoko was in the same predicament with her mother. As a result, they looked like two missing puzzle pieces that matched up.

"You don't want to destroy that, do you?"

Ai's voice was suddenly behind him, cold and unyielding. "I'm not going to tell Kudo-kun anything about Kaito-kun. Not ever. That only leaves you in his way. Are you really going to hurt them all by trying to prove who he is?"

"Yes, if it comes down to it." Saguru started to close his eyes, looking downward.

"Why? What's so important to you that you have to hurt others? Families should never be torn apart." It sounded like she was suffering for a similar pain but Saguru didn't let that affect his resolve.

"It's the law for one thing," he answered. "And the truth for another. Kuroba-kun is playing around with things that should be left alone. If he wants to continue, even knowing the danger he's in by letting me close to him, then he'll have to face the consequences."

"Why? Because he put his faith in you?" Ai turned away from him, walking to the group outside, where he could see Nakamori laying the magician down in the back with Aoko through the glass windows.

There was a reason that Saguru wanted Kaito caught. The sooner the better. It wasn't because of his pride or the thrill of it. It wasn't even for the recognition of his talents. Saguru wanted the magician behind bars because he would be safe there.

The Inspector could overlook the dangers that came along with heists. The world could overlook it. But when Saguru had been away in England and heard that there was another thief going up against the Kid while he was gone – one that was said to behave erratically and go to extreme measure to get what they wanted – Saguru couldn't help calling. Warning the magician of the danger. It felt like treason.

The only way for Saguru to stop those types of feelings was to catch him. Make sure Kaito couldn't do anything deadly anymore. Truth be told, everything he did was deadly. Only through rumors at the police department had he ever heard that the magician's life had been in danger on more than one occasion, and none of it because of the police force.

Saguru walked out the door alone, shielding his eyes from the sun as he was temporarily blinded. The sudden feel of hands underneath his arms surprised him. Blinking his eyes to try and get his vision back to normal, he saw that the Inspector had picked him up.

"Makes you feel young again to have all the children around, doesn't it?"

Saguru looked over and saw Kaito's mother getting into the car with Ai in her hands.

"Makes me feel more like a grandfather," the Inspector grumbled.

"We still have time before that happens. Maybe even longer with how childish Kaito is. Poor Aoko-chan's going to have to wait until she's fifty."

"Obasan! Don't say something like that! Kaito's an idiot! I don't want to end up with someone like him!" Aoko was blushing, completely contradicting her statement.

Kaito's mother laughed and the girl's father grinned. Saguru was at a loss again. He hadn't realized how deeply the magician and Aoko cared for one another either. Their parents even expected them to marry it seemed. Going over what he'd seen of Kaito and Aoko together, he could tell they were friends, but didn't see how he had missed the depths of their relationship.

"You're cute together and he cares about you. It's perfect." Ai spoke up, words soft where they were normally distant. "I'm sure you're children will be happy that you're their parents."

"Knock it off already!" Aoko forcefully looked out the window, finding it hard to look unemotional when Kaito's head was laying on her lap and they were alone together in the back seat.

Kaito's mother laughed. "Any child from Kaito and Aoko-chan would be a nightmare!"

"Geez would they ever." The Inspector put a hand on his forehead, looking irritated just thinking about the idea. But not unhappy.

Getting in, he kept Saguru in his lap, moving the seat back so he could steer safely. It was quite illegal but the man didn't seem to care. Of course, the only other option was to sit in the back with Kaito and Aoko, and Saguru wasn't willing to do that.

The Inspector started the car and took off. Saguru could feel Ai's chilly glare on him, but he did his best to ignore it. He disliked being the embodiment of controversy and he really did like the girl, but he couldn't accept not doing anything. Kaito could laugh it off but he was constantly putting himself in situations that could get him killed. Saguru, above all else, was out to protect the public. That included it's less then reputable citizens.

"So, nothing happened last night then?" The Inspector asked Kaito's mother. The woman shook her head.

"Not that I'm aware of. Harou-kun was sleeping with him. I thought it might help."

"Clearly it didn't." The Inspector sighed, looking for someone to blame whatever it was that had affected the magician on, someone he could yell at. Because Saguru was a child, he didn't have focus for his anger. "So, he didn't have the nightmares this time?"

Saguru looked up, the man unable to meet his gaze or they would crash.

"He may have been having a nightmare, but it went away." Saguru had been so out of it at the time that all he could remember was Kaito's shaking. "I don't think he had anymore after I fell asleep."

"That's good then. He ate this time too, so he should be waking up soon."

"Why the hell does he dream of such things? I know that his father's death hit him hard, but why dream of us dying? It's stupid." The Inspector shook his head. "He told me that's what they were. Dreams of the three of us dying. He was so scared when he was over last year that I couldn't get further than three feet away without him following me."

"Yes, I had him stuck to me for three days the year before. He's just sensitive, that's all."

"He shouldn't have been there." The Inspector shook his head, gripping the wheel hard and whispering, "Damn it. No kid should see their dad die. I'm glad Aoko wasn't over that day, but maybe it would have been better. Kaito-kun always keeps things to himself, and it's hard to tell when he reaches this point. Maybe if he had someone who could relate, he wouldn't be so withdrawn."

"No, Kaito wouldn't like that," Aoko spoke up. "Or, what I mean is, it wouldn't be better. We're all sad his dad died and he'd have to act even happier if he was trying to keep us happy."

"Stupid kid."

"If you all see that, why don't you tell him what an idiot he is?"

It seemed everyone in the car looked at Saguru and he shrank back at their eyes.

"I've tried. Aoko-chan has tried to. Kaito simply doesn't listen or finds some way to disappear so he doesn't have to listen. If you bring up anything serious, it's like trying to see the stars during the day. Impossible."

"He's just stubborn."

Saguru had an unsettling feeling at how easily everyone ignored the magician's behavior. Did Kaito even know they talked about these kinds of things behind his back? The magician wasn't an idiot, but he certainly came close to it in some aspects.

And how could they let things rest they way they were? There were some new bits of information that Saguru never had before, that he was chewing on now. Kaito had seen his father die. The way that the Inspector implied that Aoko wasn't there that day, meant it was sudden. Kaito's father couldn't be that old. Then there was the fact that, while they seemed to care what was happening to Kaito, they didn't actively do anything to stop it.

It was like having someone cut themselves while their family watched.

Saguru shivered, pushing the thoughts out of his mind. The atmosphere was certainly darker when Kaito wasn't awake to lighten it, and he had no experience in that area.

Leaning against the Inspector and wishing more than ever that he wasn't a child, Saguru let things take their course. Kaito's mother spoke up a few times, asking Aoko about school. The conversation was friendly and he let himself get lost in the dullness of science as she explained what they were learning.

They weren't far. The trip to the mall had only been a bus ride, but Kaito blinked his eyes open before they reached the house.

"Wow, where'd I go?"

Kaito laughed, getting up and having Aoko slap him lightly on the arm.

"You stupid baka! When you don't feel good, you're supposed to stay home!"

"Yeah, yeah, lecture me later." Kaito turned his body and laid back down on Aoko's lap, grabbing onto her skirt.

The girl blushed and tried to push him off. "Kaito, stop acting like a pervert!"

"No." The magician snuggled himself against her and curled himself as close as he could to her. Aoko let it go, seeing that Kaito wasn't trying to do anything to her. Placing a hand on his head, Aoko brushed some of the magician's wild hair out of his face, only for it to fall back where it had just been laying.

"Aoko quit it. You're hands are cold." Kaito didn't swat her away but tried to tilt his face so that she couldn't reach it.

"That's because you have a fever." Aoko stopped it though, and went to rubbing his shoulder like she would a puppy.

Maybe it wasn't just ignorance. They weren't keeping things from Kaito because they weren't trying to help him, they were keeping things from him because they were. The magician was stubborn, Saguru could attest to that, and if he knew that they were aware of his emotions, he'd only try and hide them further away.

So they metaphorically let him cut himself with a butter knife, knowing that if they changed the way things were, it could easily distort into a razor. Saguru felt ashamed that he didn't notice this before.

Then they reached his house and the magician was back to his annoying self, grinning and raising his eyebrows at Saguru's wig, before dancing around Aoko with his hands in his pockets and making bad jokes. Saguru wouldn't have believed it if he wasn't seeing it, but Kaito held real power over their emotional states. It wasn't so much as conscious thing as it appeared the magician did it without thinking.

The darker thoughts and emotions that had been with him since Kaito had passed out were lost, replaced by annoyance and the feeling that he'd just lost something valuable.


	10. On a Molecular Level

_**Anything I say about Microboiotic chemicatry is basic, propbably wrong, adn DONT NOT use whatever cheimcals I've saidl  
(well, expect Salt. I think that ones safe :) ) Unless you know how to properly use them! **_

Thank you.

As you can tell by the name, this chapter has a lot of Ai but this IS a Kaito and Hakuba story. There will be more of Kaito in the furture. ^_^

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_**Chapter 10: On a Molecular Level**_

The next day was more to Saguru's liking. He woke up to find Kaito and Ai both gone. Kaito's mother explained that the magician had dropped the girl off at the lab before heading off to school.

Saguru knew he'd forgotten something. He made a note to himself to get Kaito to call the school for him, as well as to his housekeeper. Or, better yet, he could get Shinichi to do it.

"I'll be back," he told the magician's mom. "I should return before Kuroba-kun does, but if I don't, tell him not to go looking for me. I won't get in trouble."

"You think I can tell Kaito not to do something?"

Saguru laughed, joined in by the woman. "Right, we're dealing with someone who can't be reasoned with. Do your best then."

"Will do. Saguru-kun, will you be here for lunch?"

"I should be." Saguru went into the kitchen, leaving Kaito's mother in the main room. He could open the drawer and just reach the pad of paper that he'd seen Kaito take out several times the other day to write down something. When Saguru had asked him what it was, he'd been told it was none of his business and had one of the fold up notes in the shape of an airplane hit him in the head.

Saguru wrote down his number and gave it to the magician's mother. Kaito had it as well, but if the magician wasn't back in time either, Saguru wanted the woman to have some way of contacting him.

"I'm going to be across town but it won't take me that long to get back. Call me if anything comes up, either from Kuroba-kun or Ai-kun. And… tell me if anything with Kid comes up, because I might not hear about it."

"I don't think Kaito would like me doing that, but you are our guest and I can't deny you a favor." She was smiling, and Saguru was left feeling more trusted than he should have been. He hadn't even done anything to warrant both her and Kaito's sudden interest in letting him into the folds of their lives.

Bidding her goodbye and putting on his new pair of used white shoes with a lime green stripe going across the side in a drunken fashion, he took out his phone and called Shinichi, realizing too late that the other boy would be in school too. He was the only one playing hookie.

Saguru left a voice message, telling Shinichi to call him after he returned home. That left Saguru with nothing on his agenda for the rest of the day and going outside was a bad decision, since he was too young to be alone and not in class.

Kaito's mother saw him coming back inside.

"That was fast."

"Yes, I'm afraid I'm becoming less competent as the days wear on. I forgot that anyone I could possibly meet with will be in class for a while. That being said, I think I'll join Ai-kun at the lab. There's not much else to do."

"You should have had Kaito take the both of you there then. I'm sure repeated bus fare will catch up with you."

"Not unless I take it every waking moment for the next ten years. I've got enough money on me. It seems I won't be home-" Saguru choked on the word, stopping midsentence as he realized what he'd just said. "I won't be back here for lunch. I'll let you know when to expect me after I have a better idea of my plans for the day."

Kaito's mother couldn't have missed his blunder but she said nothing about it. "Alright. Make sure you get something to eat then."

"I will." Saguru slipped back out the door, closing it with a soft hand. He was starting to really enjoy the magician's home. It didn't have all the same comforts his own house had, rooms smaller with economical products filling in the gaps, but it was warm. It held an intimacy that Saguru felt comfortable in. As well brought up as he was, he hadn't thought about his actions of going through Kaito's books completely for the fun of it until after he'd already started.

He drew his hand away, placing it into the pocket of his shorts as he went to the bus stop. He was asked by more than one person _where his mother was_ and, even after he was one the bus, _where he was going_ and _if he was alone_. It was tedious but commonplace answers did the trick. _His mother was at the store. He was going to met his father so that he could spend some time with him, because you see, his parents were divorced. He didn't mind being alone. He'd ridden the bus many times by himself before._ These all had bits and pieces of truth in them, so it made it easier for Saguru to have his questioners believe him. He wasn't a very good liar.

By the time he reached his grandfather's lab, he was grateful that Kaito would be picking Ai up. That meant he could talk the magician into coming with him as well so that he wouldn't have to suffer a similar ride back in a few hours.

The lab was locked. Saguru wondered how Ai had gotten in, since she hadn't asked him where his grandfather hid the key. He remembered Kaito had been with her. It was likely that he had simply picked the locks and let her in.

"I'm going to have to improve security when all this is over." He didn't want Kaito being able to go through his research.

The door opened into a large and empty hallway. His grandfather had only closed down part of the lab for him, the other wings remaining open. That still left a lot of empty space that seemed even more forlorn at his new height. Without people, the metal and the monochromatic colors were cold.

"Ai-san?" Saguru called into several doors, stretching to reach up and take hold of the iron handles. He finally found her in the bio lab. "Hello Ai-san. Do you need any help?"

Ai turned to him, dark eyes focused and intrigued. "Yes, go find me some Tryptone. I need some more Petri dishes as well." She turned back to a microscope, looking at something she clearly found interesting. Saguru wanted to share in the experience but only after he'd gotten what she'd asked him for. The chemical was on the other side of the lab, up high and behind a glass cabinet most people would be able to reach.

He tried not to let things get to him, but he knew right where the chemical could be, the exact height he would have to angle his hand to reach it. Taking a chair and climbing up on the counter to get it was degrading.

Saguru returned, finding six polypropylene tubes lined up and filled with clear liquids, indistinguishable from one another. He sat in the chair next to her after raising it as high as it could go.

"Here." Ai took a beaker filled with light green liquid and handed it to him. "Fill the tubs with buffer so I test this out." Her eyes never moved from the tube in front of her. "I can't isolate the poison, but if I treat it as a mutant gene, I might find some way of counteracting it. It won't remove the poison but it will force it into inactivity."

"This," Saguru looked down at himself, "Poison. Does it have a chance of being reactivated even if you can isolate it? Molecularly chaining it enough to create an antidote could have it attack our system on accident."

"I didn't say it wouldn't be dangerous. I've already done something similar with antidotes I've made for Kudo-kun. There is always the chance that they could kill."

"Then the benefits aren't worth the risk."

Ai laughed. "You really aren't like Kudo-kun. He still jumps at the chance to take one."

"I'm not much of an optimist." He quietly looked away. Ai saw.

"No, you're not. I'd even go as far as to say you're a pessimist like me. The only difference between the two if us is that I know who I can trust and you can't seem to get your priorities straight."

"I know where my priorities are. Kuroba-kun's going to get himself killed doing what he does, if those are the priorities that you were insinuating."

"You're just as likely to get yourself killed doing what you do."

Saguru looked up, surprised. "I am not."

Ai shook her head, her eyes burning into him almost painfully. "Look at yourself. You should have died already. How can you say what you do isn't dangerous? Everyone's in danger every day. I think it's better to have goals and dreams you can at least follow until death decides to catch up to you."

"But I can get him out of danger." His mind was going somewhere he didn't want it to. His words didn't come out more than a whisper.

"Then get yourself out of danger. I don't see you quitting your job as a detective. Do you plan to do it when you're back in your normal body? I doubt it."

"But I'm helping people."

"So is he."

Saguru had never even thought of comparing the two of them to each other. Ai's words hurt him more than he thought they could. He was a detective. He had it all figured out. Kaito was Kid. Kaito was in danger. In order to get Kaito out of danger he needed to be arrested. It never occurred to him to look at himself, and if he did, he came to a very similar chain. Saguru is a detective. Saguru is in danger. Saguru should quit being a detective.

"Are you alright?"

He looked up, confused like he never had been in his life before. His eyes must of have shown her as much. Ai didn't attempt to console him. "You should pay more attention to your own life. I actually believe it would be safer if _you_ were the one to stop playing with fire. You have no reason to and Kaito-kun does. Of the two of you, he's also more prepared. I don't see you taking _any_ precautions against something that might come up as a detective. Do you even know how to defend yourself?"

Saguru shook his head. He knew the basics of self defense, but nothing more than that. If he was up against a criminal he wouldn't win. He'd always assumed the police would be behind him at the time. That they could take the man down once he'd pointed him out. Shoot the gun without actually being the bullet if it needed a metaphor.

But the police weren't up there with him on the roof. They couldn't help him when he'd run into criminals. He'd been alone.

And if Kaito had been in his place? The magician was talented but he couldn't have gotten away anymore then Saguru could. That didn't mean there wasn't an astronomically better chance that the magician would have had better eyesight, processed the threat faster, and made it safely away.

"Ah!"

Saguru was snapped out of his thoughts by Ai's voice. The girl hunched over in her chair, clinging to her arm as something dripped down the counter. It wasn't hard to catch a whiff of the acid.

"Come here!" Saguru drew her off the chair, catching her underneath the arms to get her on the floor. He took her shoulder and dragged her to the sink on the other side of the lab, pulling out a chair and standing on it before helping her up as well. He quickly turned the water on cold and had to pry her arm away from her so that he could rinse it.

"Does it hurt?"

Ai panted out a breath, leveling him with a stare that said it was a stupid question.

"Sorry, let me rephrase that. How badly does it hurt?"

"It's not that bad," she whispered to him, clenching her teeth. "It got the sensitive skin underneath my wrist. I hate not being able to reach things." She laughed quietly to herself and Saguru joined in.

"Yes, being short does have its drawbacks." He pulled her wrist out of the water for a second to have a look at it. The burn was bad but it wasn't serious. Ai was going to have the scar for the rest of her life, but it would't be that noticeable.

"Be careful next time. I'm taller than you are. If you can't reach something, ask me to get it."

"I don't need your help."

Saguru looked down, unable to see more than then back of Ai's honey brown hair. "What does that mean? Do you still not like me?"

"No, I don't like you."

Saguru kept hold of her wrist, feeling unsure of what to say back. He _did_ like the girl. She was straightforward in her assessments and her loyalty to those she gave it to was unquestionable.

"But I don't hate you either." Ai looked up at him. "You can take your hand away now. I know what to do."

"No." Saguru held on firmer. "I'm afraid you'll have to put up with me for the time being. You're hurt and I was raised better than to leave you to take care of yourself."

So he stood behind her in silence for fifteen minutes while the water ran over her mark. She didn't try to pull away. They were both familiar with chemical burns and knew the procedures by heart as to what was supposed to be done.

When he took her hand away, Saguru jumped off, finding a clean towel to dry the area with before wrapping it up in bandages. "You don't have to do anything more. We'll wait for Kuroba-kun to get you and you can rest for a while. I'm sorry that you got hurt."

"It was my own fault. I was careless." Ai moved back to where her chemicals were. "I was onto something. I can't let stop now." She climbed back in the chair but he pulled it away from the counter, taking the towel he still had in his hand and cleaning up the floor before getting on his own chair and mopping out the counter. The beaker that spilled was small but he still felt the pain as the liquid when through the material. The trace amounts that were left would dry on the counter in under a minute and not cause any problems.

"There." Saguru tossed the towel into the hazardous material bin. "Now you can go back to work."

"You're an idiot. Why didn't you get something to clean it up with?" Ai looked at his fingers and Saguru hid them partially behind his back with his body to make it look like he wasn't doing it purposely.

"By the time I got anything, you would have sat down already and hurt yourself more. You don't seem like the kind of person who would wait for a favor."

Ai smiled. "I'm not. If you want to keep being such a helpful little assistant, I need some more sodium chloride."

"Very well." Saguru let Ai get back up on her seat, making his way across the room to a separate cabinet where the other chemicals, that weren't liquids, were kept. When his fingers brushed against the heavy jar, he winched. The burns weren't bad but they'd be irritating him for over a week.

He handed the container to Ai before climbing up on his seat, finding his balance precarious when was forced to use his less dominate hand.

"I meant it when I said you were an idiot." Ai looked back, taking some of the salt and placing it on a Petri dish.

Saguru nodded to her, "I heard."

They were silent the rest of the time while Ai mixed this chemical and that one. There were no bad reactions that he had been expecting from someone so young, and eighteen was still young for a scientist. In fact, Saguru was getting more and more impressed at her as time went on.

His phone ringing almost made Ai drop the vial that she was holding.

"Do you mind?" She asked in an angry voice. "I'm trying to work here."

"I'm sorry." Saguru slid off the chair and flipped the phone open just as he closed the door. "Hello?"

"You called Hakuba-kun?"

Saguru shook his head, forgetting that he'd been waiting for Shinichi. Spending time with Ai wasn't unpleasant and it had taken his mind away from where it should have been.

"I'm sorry. Yes I called. I was wondering if you could make a few phone calls for me so that I'm not reported missing or anything."

"I was going to call you about that. You're with Kid right? Didn't you do it already?"

"Things have been rather hectic." He could hear Shinichi laugh, silently saying that things weren't going to well for him either at the moment. "Can you do it for me?"

"I don't know who to call and what to say. I don't want to get caught talking to your father when he brings something personal up and I don't have an answer for him."

"I was planning on coming over once you were home. Do you have plans for today?"

"No," he heard Shinichi sigh. "But I don't want the two of us to be seen together if I can help it."

"I realize that. I won't be staying long." Saguru felt his pockets for his watch, hissing as his fingers scraped his pockets.

"Something wrong?" Shinichi asked.

"No," he reassured him. "In the words of Ai-san, I was being an idiot." The watch told him it was four twelve and fifteen seconds. "I can be on a bus and at your house in fifteen minutes, or I could take the same bus and go to the detective agency. Which do you prefer?"

"I don't want Ran seeing me go to my house. Come here. I'll tell them you're going to show up and that you're a friend from school."

"Give me a few minutes. I need to wait for Kura—ah. I need to wait for Kaito-kun. I don't want to leave Ai-san alone in the lab."

"How is she?" Shinichi words were inquisitive and soft. He was obviously worried about the girl.

"She burned herself. I'm afraid it was my fault. Other than that she's getting along fine. She is, in fact, fitting in better than I am. Kaito-kun and someone that he's living with have both taken a liking to her and she in turn is now bonded to them. I would find it hard to believe that Ai-san finds it difficult living there."

"It doesn't sound like you're having too much fun."

Saguru didn't say anything back. _Was he having fun?_ He didn't mind hanging around Kaito or his mother. Ai was also a decent person when she decided to talk to him. So far though, their days have not been calm. There's been so much happening that Saguru hadn't had to time to find out if he really was happy there.

"I don't know. I don't dislike it."

"I couldn't call you in school but I figured that if you really needed me you would have tried to call more than once. It didn't occur to me before but, if there's an emergency, text me so that I can answer you."

"I will. Goodbye and thank you for your help Kudo-kun."

"Don't thank me until this is over."

Shinichi hung up. Saguru close the phone, putting it in his back pocket. A knocking from behind him made him jump, turning to see Kaito leaning against the wall, wrapping his knuckles against it.

"Sorry, I was trying not to scare you this time. I didn't think you heard me coming when you were on the phone."

Saguru sighed, calming his heart rate. It took a moment for his frantic brain to process that Kaito had just done something nice.

"Thank you Kuroba-kun."

Kaito grinned down at him, looking more like Kid and not trying to hide it. "I like it better when you can fight back without shaking."

"I'm not really in the mood for your games at the moment." Saguru took a seat on the floor, the cold tiles burning into his skin. "Sit down."

"What is it? I'm sure that I can do the same things standing that I can do sitting down. The floor's dirty."

"You're dirty. Now sit down so that I can see you. I'm short enough as it is and I don't like it when you're towering above me. It makes it hard to have a conversation."

"Fine." Kaito sat the ground, crossing one leg and resting his arm – and by extension his head – on the other. "So what is it?"

"Because of Ai-san I – I don't think it's right for me to tell you what to do. I've gotten myself into enough danger that I'm not a stranger to it. I have to imagine that we're very similar in that sense. I would like to know what it is that you find so important. I am a detective to help people. That has been and always will be my main goal. I've seen too many people get hurt. I don't want to know anything too revealing but please tell me yours."

Kaito laughed, his free hand falling off his knee to the ground so that he wouldn't lose his balance. "What brought this on?"

"Can you never give me a straight answer?" He looked at the magician with weary patience. Saguru was used to Kaito's distractions at this point. Trying to get him to do anything he didn't want impossible.

"Okay then Tantei-san. I do what I want for the same reasons that you do. Is that a straight enough answer?"

"No." Saguru wouldn't let him look away. "Use your own words."

"Fine." Kaito bent down and grinned at him with something close to malice. It scared him so much that Saguru found his hands on the floor and trying to back away from those eyes. "I do it because there are killers out there, and I don't like it when they win."

"So you only do it for yourself. What? Someone hurt you and you want to hurt them back?"

"Is there something wrong with that?"

Saguru swallowed, wilting under Kaito's cruel gaze. He had never seen the magician look so… Saguru didn't even have a word for it. _Murderous_ came to mind but so did _hurt_.

"Yes, it's wrong. You shouldn't put yourself in danger for revenge."

"I protect anyone who gets in my way, so I don't see what you find so disturbing about the idea."

"It's not disturbing, it's wrong. Kuroba-kun, what exactly is it that makes you want to do this, to be a thief, to hurt people?"

"Magic doesn't wound. I give back what I take, and I make sure that I'm grinning at those who are wrong. I think it's the best way to go about things."

"But it's all for revenge right? Do you even care who the people you're saving are, or do you just care that they're safe? That you can feel like you're being something more than selfish?"

"Shut up!"

Saguru jumped, feeling a shudder run through his body.

Kaito kept his eyes on him. "I'm sorry. I told you I wasn't trying to scare you." His word may have been apologetic but his expression didn't soften.

"Do what you want." Saguru got up, feeling how uneven his legs were beneath him. He didn't know what happened to the magician, but he obviously wasn't going to get through to him. "Did you feel the same way when you came to help me? Were you only interested in getting back at the people who tried to kill me because they were criminals? Did any of your worry even mean anything?"

Kaito stayed silent, watching as Saguru brushed his arm against the wall, making his way around the magician while trying to stay as far away from his as possible. Kaito looked like a rabid dog that was ready to bite.

"I feel sorry for you Kuroba-kun." He whispered back down the hallway when he was a few feet away. He knew Kaito hadn't moved. "If that's all you think about in life."

No argument came to him, and somehow Saguru knew that he was right. Kaito's steadfastness and protectiveness all streamed from a need to see the bad guy – the criminals – lose. If someone was hurt, that meant a victory for them. It was why Kaito didn't seem to mind himself getting hurt.

What merit was there, after all, if a criminal hurt a criminal?


	11. Detective Work

nose, sore throat, ect- and my beta got sick too.  
Don't worry. The next chapter won't take more than a week like this one did.  
*ten days* sigh. That's too long. heheheh.

Anyway, read on!

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_**Chapter 11: Detective Work**_

The bus ride to Shinichi's was a repeat of his ride to the lab, except it was more crowded and there were more questions. Saguru didn't even bother asking Kaito to accompany him. His view of the magician had drastically changed from the one he has just hours ago.

Kuroba's good-guy act was just that, an act.

He got off a street down from the agency and felt suddenly tired. It was still afternoon but most of his strength was gone. He didn't like the fast life. Saguru was a very slow moving person when it came to personal situations. As an outsider, he could follow the clues, find the truth, and deal with manipulation on multiple fronts, all without batting an eye. The people who were closer to him though, those situations took a lot out of him.

Saguru went up the stairs and knocked on the agency door, wishing that he was old enough to be able to order a cup of coffee from the shop he passed on his way up. A girl who Saguru had met once before smiled down at him, slightly surprised at his appearance but not showing more than a fleeting expression of it.

"Hello. Conan-kun said his friend would be coming over. What's your name?"

He didn't answer her right away, going over the facts of their first meeting. He was sure that he'd introduced himself, or at least had been introduced, so using his real name wouldn't be helpful. "Harou-kun." He would have to get used to that name.

"Well Harou-kun, Conan-kun's in the bathroom-"

"Ran-neechan!" Saguru couldn't help smiling, looking slightly confused at the way Shinichi approached them. "It's fine."

"Did you wash up?"

"Yes." Shinichi was smiling up at her the way Saguru would expected a child to. He thought over his own actions. Even when he was young, he was never very playful. He couldn't pretend to be now either, so it was best to remain quiet. "I'm going to go in the bedroom. I don't want Ojisan to get mad if we have a client."

"Okay Conan-kun but make sure you come down for lunch in thirty minutes."

"Okay!" Shinichi walked passed her, grabbing his hand and dragging Saguru up another flight of stairs.

Once they were inside and the door was closed, Saguru took in the room. There was a bed with ash blue sheets that wasn't made. Dark blue curtains were closed so that the light from outside couldn't enter and Shinichi flipped on the light switch. The new glow didn't reveal much more. The bed was on a wooden frame with a tissue box above the head rest. There was a bundle of lighter green sheets folded neatly in the corner. Saguru didn't miss the poster above the bed, branded with the image of a young pop idol.

Shinichi sat on the ground, expressing the need for silence as he was listened to see if anyone had followed them up the stairs. The boy quickly made his assessment and looked at Saguru, waiting for him to sit down.

"Let's get the phone calls out of the way. Here" Shinichi handed over the bow-tie after moving the two dials on the back to a certain alignment. How he was able to do that so quickly was beyond Saguru's knowledge. Not only that, but Shinichi had only heard him speak twice, and both times he hadn't talked much. The boy must have had good ears and a perfect memory. Shinichi and Kaito were a close match.

Saguru shook the magician out of his thoughts. There wasn't any time to be comparing two people who were so contradictory to each other. They may have the same talents, but they were nothing alike in the other aspects of their lives.

Saguru opened his phone and called his father, the school, and Baaya – the woman having been worried sick about him for the last few days. He informed all of them that he was on a case in northern Japan and wouldn't be free for some time. They could leave him voice messages if they wanted him to call them, but it was unlikely that he would be able to pick up.

Completing that task with ease, which would have been far more difficult if he had asked the magician for help, he returned the bow-tie.

"Is that all you wanted to do?" Shinichi looked at him, reading into an expression Saguru knew he wasn't showing. It was amazing how deep the other detective's eyes penetrated.

"I wanted some time where someone wasn't either arguing with me or persistently annoying me with their very presence. You seemed like a good alternative. If I'm bothering you, I have no trouble leaving."

Shinichi shook his head. "It's fine. If it weren't for Hattori and Haibara, I think I would have gone crazy being talked down to by everyone. We're about to have lunch. You can stay if you want."

"That would be nice."

Shinichi shrugged. "Even if I wanted to, I couldn't make you leave. There were a lot of things that bothered me in the beginning too. You start seeing things for a whole other angle, metaphorically speaking. Don't take this too hard, it's not the end of the world."

The other boy walked out, leaving Saguru to smile jadedly alone in the room, following at a slower pace. With how much the others had been doing it recently, Saguru didn't like people being able to read him like an open book. It left him feeling vulnerable.

"Ran-neechan!" Shinichi jogged up to the girl, smiling like he'd just gotten the best present in the world. "Ha- ah." The detective looked back at him.

"Harou."

Shinichi nodded, staring back up. "Harou-kun wants to stay for lunch. Can he?"

"Sure. Make sure he calls his parents though so they're not worried about him. I'll set another spot."

"Don't let some random brat come in here and eat all out food! Bad enough that we've got one of them! Send him off back where he came from and let his own parents feed him!"

"Otousan! You shouldn't be so rude! He's Conan-kun's friend!"

"Like I care. The little brat has enough friends as it is. That doesn't mean we have to feed them!"

Saguru looked Kogoro over; analyzing him like he had the first time he'd seen the man. Spotting Kaito that time was easy. Unfortunately that meant that he never met the real Kogoro. The man lived up to his lower expectations, showing none of the skill that had been attributed to him. Looking over at Shinichi, Saguru was starting to get a good idea of how that worked.

Ran won out over her father, though Saguru felt the man staring down at him for the first five minutes of the meal, loosening up when the television drew his attention away.

Someone at the door interrupted the meal when Saguru was only halfway through. The TV set blaring news of a new heist by Kid almost made him miss the indiscriminate knocking.

"Who can that be?" Ran got up, letting Saguru catch the ending of the segment. Kid was after a large ruby, set in a necklace with its origins somewhere in Africa. The reporter then went on monotonously about Kid's previous heists and the new location, sparing little or no time on the diamond itself or any possible reason he could have for wanting it.

Not that it made much difference. Kid's robbery wasn't until tomorrow night, the news already prepared to milk the attention for as long as they could. Kid would get the diamond. He always had before and nothing new had happened. The diamond would then get returned and Kaito could laugh all he wanted at whoever it was the magician thought was worth all his time.

"Dad, there's a girl here for you." Ran's words had Shinichi and Kogoro turning to her with serious expressions. The later straightened his tie and grabbed his jacket from the other side of the room.

"Couldn't wait until I was done eating? So Ran, what's so important?"

"Be nice dad. She's only a teenager and it seems like her brother was just murdered. She says the police at the scene keep saying it was a suicide and won't believe her. She's very upset."

Saguru closed his eyes, listening to the noise in the other room. There was quiet sobbing underneath Ran's whispered words. The door was closed and he was sure that the girl couldn't hear them speaking. If it weren't for the way Shinichi kept looking at the door, he'd swear that no one besides him could hear her either.

"How old is she?"

"Dad, why does that matter?" Ran's words were cutting, shutting up her father who let out a gruff snort.

Shinichi was up just as Kogoro made for the door, sneaking passed him to enter the room first. Saguru followed closer to Ran, seeing Kogoro's foot come out to kick Shinichi long after he already ran past.

The girl in the other room was sitting on the strange shade of off-apricot sofas, aged but kept clean by experienced hands, which Saguru had only seen in passing while he went to eat in the other room.

Her eyes were red and her checks were raw from wiping away her tears. Teen was a lenient term. The girl was nineteen, maybe twenty, and she was carrying a bag better suited for a high school student then an adult. Three charms hung from it, one distinguishable as a little green alien. Her long dark hair was tied back in a hair tie and she was wearing a caramel colored shirt with black pants.

"Hello." The girl's words were quiet, harsh with emotion.

Saguru stayed where he was on the other side of the room, leaning against the wall and watching as Kogoro sat stiffly across from the girl, Shinichi sitting next to her instead of keeping it impersonal, and Ran taking her place behind her father. This wasn't something Saguru wanted to intrude on.

"Hello miss, I'm Mouri Kogoro. What's your name?"

"Matsuko Kiriya. My brother Daichi- He was killed." The words got steadily softer as she spoke.

Saguru wanted to back away. Even from across the room he felt something was wrong. It was alike an itch he wasn't able to scratch. He settled on rubbing his arms.

"Your brother was killed? How did it happen?" Shinichi stepped in, predictably getting yelled at.

"Shut up you stupid brat!" If Kogoro could have reached him, Saguru knew that the other detective wouldn't be so forward. The girl smiled at Shinichi.

"It happened this morning. The police keep saying it's a suicide but they won't close the case because there are some ties they say don't make sense. I know my brother wouldn't kill himself. Never." Kiriya wrapped her arms around stomach.

"Your brother, how old was he and how did he die?" Kogoro took over, Shinichi focusing on observing rather than questioning.

"He is- ah sorry." Kiriya's fists clenched. "He was twenty four. Daichi took over our father's business when he passed away a few years ago. Before that Dad had been sick a lot, so he was ready to take it up. It's only a few hotels but they're pretty popular among the locals. The police came when I found him dead in the house we're sharing. His-" Kiriya started crying, unable to finish her story. Saguru shuddered, picturing all the versions of death that his mind could come up with.

"It's fine. What is it that you were saying before? The police thought it was suicide but couldn't prove it?"

She shook her head. "No, they think it was murder, but everything points to suicide. Daichi had a meeting today. The police found the appointment in his planner. It was with a man who was going to expand the business. No one would kill themselves right before something like that!"

"I agree, that does sound strange. Are you sure there wasn't anything bothering your brother? I'm sure with owning a business he had to take loans out. Maybe he owed someone a lot of money and couldn't pay it back?"

"No! You don't know my brother! Daichi was a great brother but he was also a great businessman. If anyone was owed anything, it would be _to_ him!"

"Maybe that's it then. Someone owed your brother money and they didn't know how to repay him so they went and killed him."

"Maybe." The girl held her hands close to her. "Tatsuo was always saying that Daichi was too nice. Maybe someone took advantage of him and killed him. But I don't see why they would. Most of Daichi's friends are all good people and I know them well."

"Who's Tatsuo?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. He was my fiancé. He died last year of an illness."

"So he knew your brother well?"

"What does it matter, Mouri-san? Tatsuo's long dead. He can't answer any of your questions now."

"I'm sorry." Kogoro look stricken, his less than graceful tact making him seem even more foolish in Saguru's eyes. Shinichi in the mean time had made is way over to sit directly next to the girl.

"Did your brother have any large debts owed to him?"

Kiriya shook her head. "No, he didn't. A few were as high as 90,000 yen, but most of them were low, only lent out to friends who, honestly, I don't think Daichi would have cared enough about to reclaim."

"Sounds like a really nice guy."

"He was." The girl smiled. "That's why I can't stand it when the police say they have no choice but to call it a suicide when they don't even believe it!"

"I'll come with you to the scene. See if there's anything I could do to help. In the meantime, try and tell me the circumstances of your brother's death _unless it bothers you too much_," Kogoro added, trying to amend his earlier over-eagerness.

"Sure."

They all walked out, Saguru trailing behind and getting worried looks from Shinichi. When the other detective fell back as well, they started a quiet conversation.

"Do you not what me to come?" he asked, seeing that Shinichi was worried about more than his attitude.

"No, it should be fine. Megure-keibu doesn't know you, so there should be no reason to hide. If there are reporters, try and make yourself scarce."

"There shouldn't be. This happened a while ago."

Shinichi nodded. "What's been bothering you? I can feel your eyes on me and it's very distracting."

"Sorry." Saguru faced forward, getting a sigh for his actions.

"That's not what I meant. I don't mind you looking at me but it was like you were trying to tell me something and I couldn't figure out what it was."

"Nothing of the sort. I don't know why but I've been feeling uneasy for a while now. It's just me."

Another nod and Shinichi ran to the head of the group, smiling and proceeding to ask Kiriya more questions while he had her attention. They made their way over to a police vehicle.

"Takagi-keiji?" Shinichi looked up at the policeman who got out of the car.

"Hello Conan-kun." The officer smiled, innocence practically written across his face. Naivety was not something Saguru usually saw worn so openly, especially with higher ups.

"What are you doing here Takagi-keiji?" Kogoro leaned in, taking the man's space from him and forcing the officer to back into the car.

"Oh, ah, it's nothing. I was on this case and I thought that we could use your help. The crime scene is across town and I thought you could use the ride."

"So you came here so that I could help the police? Tsh. I'm the famous Mouri Kogoro! Have all the other officers go home! I'll have this case solved in the hour!" Here the older man proceeded to laugh, hurting Saguru's ears.

"Ah, yeah. That's why I thought you could help. I can't really make the other officers go home though." The officer scratched the side of his cheek, unsure of what to do. Saguru had enough of the foolishness and got into the back seat of a black car when Shinichi opened the door, getting in first.

"We won't fit."

Shinichi sighed, opening his door. "Come on Ran-neechan! I want to sit with you!"

"Thanks." Saguru blushed, having dodged sitting on either the girl's or the man's lap. Both were unappealing since he didn't know them well.

"It's fine. I'm used to it."

Shinichi's face brightened up when Ran looked in on them, picking him up and placing him on her lap before putting the seatbelt around them both.

"Harou-kun, you should put your belt on too."

Saguru nodded to her, clicking the harness around his waist. Kiriya got in the front seat of the car while Takagi and Kogoro proceeded to continue arguing.

"Does he always do that?" Kiriya asked into the back seat, voicing one of the many questions Saguru had forming in his head.

"If his head was any bigger he wouldn't be able to fit in the car," Shinichi answered in a sarcastic voice. Ran sighed before agree with him. "But don't worry, Ojisan's a really good detective."

Shinichi and Saguru shared a look, the former one was smug and the later changed from curious to a matching grin. It was all he needed to know in regards to Kogoro's intellect.

The older detective peered into the car, seeing the front seat was taken and getting into the empty one on Saguru's left, behind Kiriya.

"Let's hurry up and get this over with. I'm sure the police using my enormous talent is fine and all, but I'm not at their beck and call."

"I'm sorry Mouri-san. Takagi-keiji had told me about you. It was my idea to ask for your help."

"Oh, it's not trouble at all Matsuko-san. It's not trouble at all!" Kogoro leaned forward, speaking more directly to her since they couldn't face one another. "I'll have this case wound up in now time. You're brother's murderer won't get away from me!"

Takagi got in the car at this point, adamantly facing away from Kogoro and driving at a pace that Saguru found relaxing. There weren't many policemen out there who believed in taking the easy route. Growing up in England was one thing, but those first few car rides with his father had Saguru feeling sick.

The trip took more than twenty minutes up north and any notion of silence was murdered along the way. Kogoro started bickering with Takagi once again, complaining about the snail's pace they were going at. Said pace was already ten over the speed limit. Then Kiriya started crying and Ran leaned forward, trying to comfort her, Shinichi squirming out of the seat-belt to sit on the floor to the side of her legs or be suffocated. Saguru stayed out of all of it. At one point Ran tried to get him into the conversation but he closed his eyes and answered anything she said casually.

They reached a nice white house, light brown patchwork across the top and peach colored drapes showing through the largest window in the front. Five police cars were the only thing that spoke of something wrong. Otherwise it looked like a nice quiet home, lawn neatly cut, if not slightly rough here and there, neighborhood equally as tranquil.

Once out, Kiriya attached herself to Takagi, the officer wrapping one arm around her shoulder and blushing furiously. By his motions, this didn't seem like something new.

"We haven't removed the body yet," Takagi warned back to them. Ran placed a hand on Shinichi's shoulder, bending down to reach him while Saguru walked past, the girl's worried look following him.

"It's okay Ran-neechan. I won't touch anything."

"That's not-" The girl shook her head as Shinichi caught back up to them.

"Do this very often?" Saguru asked.

"More than you would think. If Kogoro-ojisan weren't so dimwitted I wouldn't need to. These people need help and I can't leave it in his hands. Do you have any idea how many people would get away with murder if I did?"

"I have an estimate."

Shinichi shrugged. "What would you do?"

"You mean what am I _doing_. We are in the same situation now."

They smiled at one another. "Yeah, I guess we are. You were kind of vague on the phone. How is it living with Kaitou Kid?"

"Not as exciting as you would think. That guy's not what he seems."

Shinichi's response was a questioning glare. "Well he seems like a carefree, if not somewhat intelligent, fool. I would think that the opposite of that would be a good thing."

_Kaito being serious was a good thing?_ Saguru couldn't see that. The darkness there was vast. He'd never noticed how black Kid was underneath the white. It was like seeing a fifty yen coin for the first time, admiring the flower on one side only to turn it over as seen nothing, just a big 50 in stark bold press.

"I think I'd rather him be an idiot."

"Why, because it's easier to blame and idiot for being stupid than to blame someone of a higher intelligence of the same thing? Don't worry about it so much. I'm sure-"

Shinichi trailed off.

"You're sure of what?"

"Nothing. I'm sure of nothing. That's what makes it fun." Shinichi grinned again. "Right now I've got to think about this though, so," he shrugged, "think whatever you want in return. I'm not sharing the experience so it doesn't really matter what I feel."

Saguru nodded in understanding. They walked into the main room, up a flight of stairs, to stop behind Kogoro when he froze. Takagi stayed back, keeping Kiriya from seeing the crime scene.

And with very good reason.

Daichi was a small man. His thick black hair fell in curls off the table where he lay, throat slit open and a razorblade in his hand. Saguru felt the first shock of death run through him before his brain numbed it, cataloging all that he was seeing. Shinichi was more straightforward in his inspection, walking up to the body and examining it from every angle.

Saguru noticed several things at once, as Shinichi must have. The razor was in his right hand, and yet the cut went clear across his throat, an action that would have taken both hands and yet his other one was clear of blood. If he had slit his own throat, it would have been hard for him to do, his main artery already having been cut if he'd gone from the right side. It wasn't impossible but it was unlikely. The other thing he noticed was that there was a good deal of blood under one of his slippers that had fallen to the floor after Shinichi picked it up.

He sat back and watched as Shinichi continued to search for clues as to the murderer's identity. Saguru shook off his own feelings, knowing he must be wrong. Shinichi didn't seem to come to the same conclusion as he had and, as for the record, Shinichi had the better score of figuring out the truth. Saguru didn't want to hurt anyone if he was wrong.

Kogoro stayed with the police officers who were already there, the largest one coming up to him, Saguru remembering his face too late.

"Weren't you the little boy at the hotel?"

Saguru nodded, backing away from the man. "I was staying there with my dad."

The fatter man looked at him intently. "Who's your father?"

Saguru swallowed. He couldn't use his own name, Kudo's name, or Kuroba's name. Inventing a name could have worse consequences.

"Tamaki" Saguru answered, using his uncle's first name.

"And what's your name?"

"Harou."

"What's your _full_ name?"

Saguru looked around desperately, spotting Ran and running over to her like a child. He hid behind her to try and get away from the Inspector, feeling his face flush at the indignation. "Nee-chan, that man is scaring me. My dad told me to never tell strangers my name."

Ran bent down, running her hand down his hair as if she were petting a puppy. "It's okay Harou-kun. Megure-keibu isn't a stranger, he's a police officer. You don't have to be afraid of him."

Saguru continued to keep out of the Inspector's way, moving to the other side of Ran when he came closer in a warped game of tag. Ran smiled at the Megure apologetically. "I'm sorry Megure-keibu. I think you're scaring him."

"All right." The Inspector went back to Kogoro, not looking too disappointed that he didn't get his information. Saguru had to be careful. Whoever those two killed the night they poisoned him, they'd done it from that hotel. Anyone on the roof would be suspicious, that would have made him the number one suspect if he weren't a child.

"What are you doing?" Shinichi voice behind him made Saguru jump.

"Nothing. The Inspector and I have met recently. He was asking for my name." Saguru whispered, turned away from Ran so that the girl couldn't hear what he was saying.

Shinichi frowned. "Okay. I haven't been able to find much. There's a broken window upstairs but the killer couldn't have gotten in that way. There isn't anything to climb up. Besides that, all the suspects in this case have alibis at the time."

"Um." Saguru turned to face Kiriya. "Where was she?"

"Why?" Shinichi tipped his head, looking between him and the girl. "I don't think it was her."

"Really? I guess I must really be losing it." Saguru couldn't help wanting to trail his suspicions. He walked up to the girl, staying far enough away that he'd be able to run. Saguru was, after all, cautious.

"Did you and your brother get along?"

Kiriya blinked, standing behind Takagi. She nodded. "Of course we did. I've been living with him practically all my life."

"You've been living with your brother?" Takagi asked. "That's a bit strange."

She shook her head. "No, I didn't have much money. I was going to move out when I got married to Tatsuo, but he died soon after we made our engagement public. The doctor's said he had a bad heart all his life. It was so sudden that- I don't know. It was a shock. I ended up staying here with my brother like I had been before."

"Who was paying the bills?"

Kiriya looked down at him, Takagi doing the same thing but including a look at Shinichi. "I was."

"And where were the clothes you were wearing before now?"

Kiriya looked surprised. "What do you mean? I was always wearing this."

"So when you saw your brother dead you didn't go over to him? What if he _hadn't_ been dead at the time?"

"You see all the blood. I could tell that he was dead. I'm not very brave. I'm sorry if I couldn't go over to him because I was scared!" She started crying and Shinichi put a hand on Saguru's shoulder to get him to back off. He pushed the hand away.

"You're very good at making yourself cry. That's why you brought Mouri-san over. If he could prove that it was murder, who in their right mind would suspect a girl afraid of blood? I'm sure that your old clothes are around here somewhere, ripped from where your brother tried to stop you and covered in his blood." Saguru tilted his head back. "When you sever that artery, the blood literally goes everywhere and yet there are no makings towards the lower end of the couch. That's because you were standing there when you killed him. His slipper must have come off in the struggle, trying to push you way from him, and you only placed it back after cutting his throat. That's why there so much blood under it."

"I would never do that!"

A scent caught his attention. Saguru sighed. "You burned your clothes. That's why you smell like fire. You couldn't have burned your shoes but I'm sure you treated them with something to make sure that we couldn't detect the blood." He looked around. "I'm certain that you've left some evidence behind. We'll find it."

"What are you talking about? You're just a kid! Don't go around saying that I killed my brother! I loved him! I would never do something like that!"

"First off," Saguru lifted up her pant leg, revealing a bruise that would darken more by the next day. "How did you get this then? I've been around better actors then you and you're crying won't fool me."

"Ah, I get it." Shinichi looked up, smiling at Takagi like a child. "There's a mark on the wall near the broken window. That means whoever broke it threw something in hard enough to leave a mark so that they'd be able to enter through the window. They must be a magician then to make it vanish right after sneaking in and killing him, taking the time to go back and get it before leaving out the front door without leaving any trail of blood."

"But Conan-kun, they could have taken the object with them."

"So they took this heavy object and the razor when they went to kill him? Then he must have been an alien and had three arms to hold him down! Or he just sat there and let them cut him. But that would be really stupid, wouldn't it Takagi-keiji!"

"They could have set it down before hand."

"But it was heavy right?" Saguru asked. "Everything here is completely clean and if Daichi-san saw someone walking up to him with a heavy object, wouldn't he have run away? The razor is easy enough to hide, but not something like a brick."

"Ah." Takagi thought about it. "I guess he would be suspicious if someone walked up to him with something like a brick. But the killer could have done anything with the object."

"I checked with the team outside. There's nothing heavy enough to be used to break the window and leave the mark. Forensics also checked the house and found nothing. That would mean the killer had to go back and get it from wherever they had put it, leaving some sort of trail, but the only one we could find was the bloody socked one's leading out the door."

"You couldn't have gone far to burn your clothes. We'll find them." Saguru grinned, watching her face change expressions and yet not settle on one. It showed how truly bad she was at pretending. Saguru had first felt it at the agency when she started crying. Her breath never caught and, if she had really been crying the whole time, she would have coughed at least once.

Takagi held onto her more securely as Kiriya tried to get away. It was all the officer needed as a confession. Placing the girl's hands behind her back before she could do anything, Takagi started asking the questions, _Where are the clothes? Why did you do it? _and the like. Saguru remembered, too late again, that both he and Shinichi had just revealed themselves. Shinichi looked up at Megure as he came over, having witnessed the interrogation from halfway through. Shinichi didn't seem to mind what he had said. Ran was certainly giving them both hard looks.

Kiriya's clothes were harder to find that he thought. It took the officers a full four hours to track them down. She'd gone into a forest nearby and burned them in a garbage can.

"You weren't very helpful today." Megure narrowed his eyes at Kogoro.

"Ah, it was nothing. I knew all along that she was the killer." Kogoro looked away, seemingly disappointed that such a pretty young girl could kill someone. As it turned out later, Daichi was using Kiriya as a cash cow. He'd even been responsible for her fiancée's death the year before so that he could keep her. Unlike his hotel business, Kiriya worked for a high paying broker and her brother liked to spend money.

Saguru felt calmer on the way back. It had been a while since he had to solve a murder and the freedom of still being able to do it as a child was refreshing. Takagi had been difficult afterwards, asking Saguru who he was and where he was from. Shinichi took care of most of the questioning, fabricating lies faster than Saguru ever could have. He supposed it came with practice.

Kogoro and Ran went into the house. It was getting dark out and Saguru couldn't avoid the magician any longer. Staying with Mouri didn't seem that terrible, but he hated to run away from his problems. If he wasn't there to keep an eye on the magician, who knew what he could get into. It was even worse now that Saguru knew the extent of Kaito's goals.

"I'll be seeing you again." Shinichi held out his hand.

"Yes, hopefully I won't be this height when that time comes." Saguru shook it. Shinichi smiled lightly, held down with a heavy weight.

"I will. I have things I need to do and I can't let the world know I'm still alive yet."

"Yet." Saguru let go, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "I'll help you with this when we're through. I know I can't do anything right now and I'm sure you might not need my assistance, but I'm there for you to call on."

"Thank you. I'll be fine. I already have Hattori watching my back."

Saguru considered their past run-ins. "I always thought there was something between you and that idiot."

Shinichi laughed. "Yes well, you have an idiot yourself."

"You could always use another person to watch your back. I'm sure I've got contacts that you don't. Again, if you need me, I'm open of anything. I _do_ want to get them back for doing this to me."

"So what? Revenge is a road best walked down with friends?"

Saguru froze. "It's not about revenge. These people are dangerous. I couldn't do anything and they killed someone right in front of me."

"I know." Shinichi walked back in the house. "That's just what you made it sound like."


	12. The Razor's Edge

Sorry I've been so slow. I've just gotten a new job and somethings have been happening with my family  
Good news though, today (hopefully) will be my last day being sick. It seems to have run its course... so YAY!

Both storires are getting updated to so, YAY again!

Author's note: *Chancer: British word for an opportunist. (For those who come across it and wonder why I put it ^_^)

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_**Chapter 12: The Razor's Edge**_

It was late when Saguru got back to Kaito's. The magician and Ai were already there, Kaito having taken up a good section of the table to do his homework while Ai sat in the main room with Kaito's mother and watched a television program on foreign cooking.

Saguru walked past them all, waving to Kaito's mother when she looked up to meet his eyes. He wanted to shower. He'd avoided the blood and his socks were clean, but he felt dirty in a way he couldn't describe. It wasn't because Shinichi had mirrored his words about revenge back at him. The other detective knew what he had intended to imply. Kaito had _not_ fought the allegations. That meant Saguru had been right.

He washed up, skipping a bath again. He preferred his own bathroom and didn't like the thought of using someone else's. He knew that he was the only one who felt that way but he couldn't help keeping the customs he had grown up with. He had only been in Japan for the first nine years of his life and England had taken any picked up habits and thrown them away.

When he got out, Saguru could hear Ai and Kaito's mother making dinner in the kitchen. It smelled good and Saguru realized he never finished lunch. He went down the stairs, taking a seat as far away from the magician as possible as Kaito put his homework away and set the table. They didn't say anything to one another, not that they would have anything to say but the friendly teasing they were famous for was missing as well.

Kaito refused to meet his eyes when they sat down for dinner. The magician didn't even try putting up a front. He sat there, eating in silence with no smile for once and eyes that looked like they were miles away.

Saguru couldn't say anything. That magician had really pulled one over on him. As he started to learn the deeper workings of the cases that Kaito had been involved in, he developed his own notions of the teen. Now he saw that they were all for nothing. Kaito didn't care about anyone besides himself. If his priorities had people's lives fall in the way, he'd protect them. It didn't care whose face went with the life.

Neither of the girls asked what was wrong with them when no one spoke. Eventually they started up a conversation with each other and left him and Kaito to sit more comfortably in the noise of their words.

Saguru finished first, pushing his chair away from the table and making his way out of the room. Being who he was, Saguru couldn't help but look back. He noticed Kaito's clenched fist relaxing, making him wonder if his words were upsetting the magician or if Kaito simply didn't like someone who knew so much about him sitting at the table. It was a saddening thought.

There wasn't much to do at the magician's house that wouldn't be prying. Saguru was getting tired of sidestepping his more forward actions so he went up to the bedroom, taking Kaito's mattress from him for a while and taking one of the books that Kaito kept personally in his room. It was rather dull, even for Saguru's taste, and drawled on at a snail's pace on the schematics of how to generate your own electricity and wire up your own machines. To Saguru, it was now research material and he didn't put it down. Kaito would have no reason to have the book other than that he had to research something for his next heist. Thanks to Shinichi's television he knew that the thief was planning to steal a large diamond the next day.

He was already worn down enough and the murder may have heightened his adrenaline, but it was fading now and the dry reading had Saguru placing the book on his chest and closing his eyes. He had only wanted to rest for a moment but the next time he looked at Kaito's old-fashioned clock, the long black arrows told him he'd been asleep for over two hours.

The magician walked in a few minutes after that, wet hair being dried with a small white towel as Kaito stuck what appeared to be a sucker into his mouth.

Saguru put the book down, sitting up straight now that he wasn't alone.

Except for a disinterested glance, Kaito walked by him. He opened a closet imbedded into the wall and took out a small box that was lying on a rack that the magician had to stretch in order to reach. Kaito turned back, closing his door quietly to leave Saguru alone in the room once more.

Saguru was miffed at how easily Kaito seemed to wave him off. He put the book back on a small end table, the only thing in the magician's room that could be labeled as 'unnecessary furniture.' He went down the stairs in the path that the magician must have taken.

Of course though, Kaito had seemed to disappear the moment he wanted to talk with him. Looking into kitchen and the other rooms, Saguru found no sign of his illusive host.

"Kaito went out for a while," the magician's mother told him when she saw his wandering gaze. "He should be back in the hour. He told me he was going to be quick."

"It's alright. It wasn't anything important."

Ai was in the kitchen with Kaito's mother and it looked like the two were busily working on something that required a lot of writing and the checking of the cabinets so Saguru let them be.

Saguru found some pleasure in touring the house to a greater extent. It had felt like invasion before but Saguru wasn't looking for anything now and, he reasoned with himself, he could be staying a while and he wanted a layout of the building.

Kaito's mother's room was his favorite. He hadn't noticed it before. It was at the end of the hall and everything was draped in a deep purple. Softer lilac sheets were pulled back on the bed and amethyst carpet gave the room a warm feeling. Her curtains, unlike Kaito's, were thin, letting in the light as the day started to fade. There was small clutter here and there, placed in neat piles that her son's room was missing.

There were things in there that spoke of a man, yet Saguru couldn't see Kaito's father sharing the lavender room. Most of the effeminate things were hidden away but he could see a watch that was placed on a desk in the far corner, too thick to be a woman's, and a black hat, rimmed with gray and designed for a male.

Saguru didn't pry, leaving the room alone with only a cursory look. It was clear that only the magician's mother had been living in there for some time in a bed best suited for two people. Saguru didn't want to think about what happened.

The only thing that Saguru couldn't get off his mind was that Kaito's mother had photos, where the rest of the house was empty of any types of memories. There were at least three, two of which were on a desk near a small laptop. Judging from their rooms, it was clear that Kaito and his mother were very different people in some aspect, even as like-minded with each other as they seemed.

There was another room across from Kaito's mother's that looked like a storage room. Glancing in, Saguru could feel himself fall under the enormity of the mess that was left. The small room was cramped full of boxes and wires and controllers, and things that had been lost over the years. He was sure that several decades were represented by something in the mess.

Saguru closed the door, the task of going through even a small portion of the room's contents too much for him. The rest of the upstairs he had already seen, ignoring the main room and kitchen on his way downstairs and finding that they didn't have a basement.

_Peculiar_.

Kaito must have something out somewhere that disclosed, or at least hinted at, his thievery. The books weren't proper tools at all. As he though more about it, Kaito may have had a place outside his home where he keep some of his things. His house could be searched. A residence that no one knew he was using could not.

"Sneaky chancer. I'd have to wager I couldn't find anything even if I tried."

Saguru, left with nothing else to look at and unwilling to scavenge through the room of no return, sat in front of the television and waited as his body became tired. He had already slept so it wasn't until much later that he felt he be able to do so.

He was startled when Kaito walked in the door, the magician entering and slipping of his shoes soundlessly so Saguru jumped when he was suddenly right next to him.

"Sorry" Kaito apologized, dark marks under his eyes keeping his expression lethargic.

Saguru turned off the screen, letting the glow from the kitchen light up the room. He looked at his pocket watch in the timid light. It was after two in the morning. Kaito's mother had long since bid him a good night, Ai had followed quietly in her trail.

"Your mother said you'd be back quickly," he said without emotion. "You do know how late it is."

"That was quick. I'm usually out all night." Kaito walked up the stairs, ignoring him after his short explanation. Saguru couldn't hear his footsteps on the stairs or the click of his door as it opened and closed.

"I have to give him credit, Kuroba-kun's good" Saguru whispered to himself. It was late and he needed to get to sleep as well. Better to go now than risk waking the magician up. Though he knew Kaito wouldn't be angry at him, it was very impolite.

He placed the remote back on the stand that the set was laying on, replacing the pillows and cushions that he had moved accidently while he sat. Once the room was in a suitable condition, he followed Kaito up the stairs, hearing his own feet brush lightly against the carpet with a perceptible, yet quiet noise. The door was impossible to silence, as much as he tried, and the room was black when he entered. Saguru flipped on the light, putting his bedding out as quickly as he could while Kaito faced the wall.

He turned off the light, placing a light sheet over himself. The day hadn't been his best, starting off with his argument with Kaito and ending with someone's death. With so much that had happened, he thought it was funny that he couldn't fall asleep. Saguru ended up staring at the ceiling, indistinct objects in blurry focus as his eyes adjusted all that they could to the darkness of the room.

After dragged on minutes of silence and quiet breathing, Saguru had the necessary elements to let his eyes close.

Just as he was about to go to sleep, Kaito sat up on the bed. Saguru turned to better see him. The magician had curled his legs up close to his body in a sitting position and had his palms going into his eyes as his fingers held onto his bangs. He lowered his hands, staring at Saguru with eyes that looked as demonic as they had the first time, even more so in the low light. The only difference was the amount of hurt in them overrode the murderous.

"Do you really-?... Damn it!" Kaito shook his head. "Forget it."

Saguru couldn't even ask what was wrong. He sat there, frozen like a deer in the headlights. Kaito started to lie down again before getting back up, clearly agitated.

"Fine, maybe this will work." The magician threw the comforter over his head, still sitting and spoke. "Are you scared of me now?"

_What?_ "No." Saguru said in a low voice the magician shouldn't have been able to hear underneath the sheet.

"Good because it's really hard to keep my word when anything I say or do makes you freeze up."

"What are you talking about?" Saguru stared at the bulge of sheets in the dark, confused more than he had been in some time. Kaito didn't seem to be doing it purposely, so he let it go.

"I told you I won't scare you anymore. I've been trying not to. Do you have any idea how much I wanted to talk to you today? I can't take it anymore! I mean, the minute I tried to say anything, you looked like you were ready to run away."

"Because you've been looking at me like you're a wild dog and I'm suddenly a new tasty treat."

Kaito laughed. It was muffled by the sheets but it allowed Saguru to unwind a little. Whatever the magician was getting at, there must be some purpose behind it.

"That's because I've been wanting to talk to you! Geez, what did you think? That was I was going to eat you?" Kaito removed the blanket, his hair standing up even more if that were possible. His eyes were shadowed and wounded, though he still wore a smile that must have come with the laughter. "So, do I still scare you?"

The dark eyes were on him now, smile offsetting the expression only slightly.

"Yes you do."

Kaito turned back, closing his eyes. "Great. I really don't want to talk to you under the blanket."

"Kuroba-kun, it's your expression that –startles me." Kaito let out a small laugh again at his words. "I'm not so much afraid of you as I am of what you could do. I may not be making much sense but, the way you look at me, anything really, leaves me feeling-" Saguru didn't even have the word for what he was looking for. He was sure it was out there in some dictionary somewhere, but right now it wasn't coming to mind.

"I can't help it if I'm angry." Kaito turned back to him, eyes gleaming in the dark. "I would never hurt anyone though. What you said-" Saguru couldn't see it but by the way Kaito's arm tensed up, he must have been making a fist. "To say that I don't care who it is. Hakuba-kun, do you think that I _didn't care_ when you called? You know how fast I tried to get there? I didn't even have time to give the teacher a good excuse. Why do you think I was so late coming home today? I've got after-school work for the next _two weeks_ because of that."

Again, Saguru was thrown into speechlessness. He lost it slowly. His rational mind working even as Kaito tried to throw it off. "That's because you know me. I'm believe that had something to do with it. Something happened to you. I'm sure of it. I'm not sure what, but something happened. Because of that you seem blind to everything else around you."

"You're wrong."

Saguru waited in the quietness of the night, hearing the distant sounds of the world the closed window kept muffled.

"If anything, I'm seeing too much now. Ever since- something happened, everyone I meet has the possibility of being another me. I can't let that happen. I mean, I care about getting back at him, no question, but I don't want anyone to get hurt because of it. Revenge is far lower on my list than you seem to think."

"It doesn't seem that way." _Revenge?_ Saguru hadn't heard the word from Kaito before even when he had been accusing him of using it as an excuse. He hadn't even associated him with it before that morning. Thinking about it, Saguru couldn't place any reason for it either. Kaito had no enemies and the only ones he could think of for Kid were the police. He wanted to know who had hurt the magician bad enough to warrant this behavior.

The magician laughed again. Saguru wasn't used to Kaito acting as serious as he was now. It was part of the reason that he knew that he was being played. By himself, Kaito wasn't nearly as manic as he was in school. This indicated that he either had a personality issue or he was masking his real self.

"I'm just a good actor." Kaito winked. "So, you think I'm doing this for purely selfish reasons?"

"Give me some reason to doubt it."

"How do I do that?" Kaito moved his feet so that they were hanging off the bed to better face him. Saguru thought about it, letting all the facts that he'd gathered on the magician come to him. Kaito was selfish, hands down. To prove it, there was only one thing he could do. Saguru smiled.

"Stop."

"Stop what?"

"I was with Kudo-kun today. I heard about your notice. Don't do it."

"You mean not go? I can't do that!"

"Why not?"

"Because-" Kaito trailed off into silence. Saguru smiled.

"See, you're selfish. If you don't go it's going to get in the way of whatever it is your doing. It won't hurt anyone else."

Kaito made a noise like he was about to say something. Shaking his head he got back into bed and put his hands behind his head. "Fine, I'm selfish. I can't back out now."

Saguru was ready to take that answer. He'd already made his assumptions and had a new estimation of Kaito's capabilities. Motive was still missing but that could be one of many things. There were always reasons. If it weren't for the fact that Kaito conceded to him, he wouldn't have had a problem with it.

"Kuroba-kun, what am I missing?"

"Hm?" Kaito's voice was muffled even though he'd sounded wide awake seconds ago.

"I've never seen you give up so easily. It's very unlike you."

"I'm tired." Kaito wasn't faking it either. Saguru could hear it not only in his voice but the way he breathed and the way his body moved. He'd been watching the magician since the start of their conversation and Kaito hadn't cared to play up on it until now. That didn't mean he wasn't worn-out.

"You had no problem standing up for yourself just seconds ago. Something made you shut up."

"What more do you want Hakuba-kun? I told you you've won. Drop it. Want me to sign a legal document saying what a jerk I am? How selfish I am? Fine, but leave it for tomorrow. I don't want to stay awake anymore."

"I don't like being lied to." Saguru was amazed at the venom that had come out with his words. He quickly cleared his throat and looked away. Emotions weren't supposed to get the better of him. It wasn't like Kaito hadn't lied to him before and the magician wasn't the first to play him as the sap, though the majority of the others were female and took advantage of him because of his courteous behavior.

Saguru laid back down, looking over at Kaito after several minutes of silence. He wanted to jump out of his skin when he met the magician's eyes.

Kaito had silently risen from the bed into a sitting position and was watching him like a gargoyle. In the dark, the tinted light coming in from outside made his eyes glow, further demonizing the teen. The eyes followed him as he moved backwards and let out a sharp breath.

He shivered, the warm air of the room not enough to ward off the goose bumps making the fragile hairs on his arms stand up.

"Stop looking at me" Saguru spoke, voice quiet and even. Under stress he became even more formal than he was used to.

Kaito blinked, not removing his gaze.

"Please, I asked you to stop. I'd really like to go to bed."

The magician looked away after that, forced to as he got his legs out from under the covers and walked the two feet that separated them in order pick him up. Saguru fought back weakly, unsure of what it was that the magician was planning. Kaito turned with him to face the bed again and placed him where the two walls met, trapping him. Kaito sat in front of him with crossed legs.

"Why are you so scared of me? You didn't used to be."

"I don't know." Saguru wanted to melt into the wall where nothing could be asked of him. Kaito was easily three times his size now and he had no hope of winning if he wanted to fight back. It was the first time since he was back in his younger body that he hated being weaker. Even when Kaito had held him upside-down, he knew he wouldn't be hurt. Now the fear of danger was almost overwhelming.

"You see why I don't want to tell you anything?" The magician placed a finger lightly on his nose. Saguru wasn't as shocked by the contact as he was that Kaito could see so well in the dark. "It's like you just realized how much danger you're in. I still don't see why it's me you're afraid of though. I haven't done anything to you." Kaito laughed quietly. "Well, I haven't done anything recently."

"But you could. If you really wanted to do something right now, I wouldn't be able to stop you."

"And what would I do? Hakuba-kun, it's not like I couldn't have done anything I wanted before now either." Kaito held up a finger. "Once you stopped me. That's not much of a track record. Kudo-kun's his higher than yours is."

"I mean if you did something physically."

"You're afraid I'm going to hurt you?"

Saguru was silent, seeing how foolish it was to be feeling that way. He couldn't help it though. It wasn't as if he didn't have justification for his concern.

"Why would I do something like that? Hakuba-kun, what would even make you think that I would _ever_ do anything to you?"

"I'm in your way. It's only natural. I'm sure I've made angry more than once. Now I can't fight you back."

Kaito got up so fast that Saguru couldn't even see where he had gone to. One minute there was another weight on the bed and shadow across his vision, and in the next the room was brighter, unclear in the darkness. He heard the sound of something close and Kaito's weight was back on the bed, grabbing onto his wrist.

"Hakuba-kun, I'm going to keep stealing. Nothing will stop me. I have my own reasons and I'm not going to explain them to you. I don't need to. If people get hurt, I'll try to help them. If I can't than that's all right. I would have tried. Nothing you say is going to make me change my mind. I'm equally not going to change how I act. Just because you know that I'm doing this partially -and I mean a small part at that- for revenge, doesn't mean you have to be afraid of me. I haven't changed. You have."

Something cold and metal was placed into his hand. "Because I'm bigger, you're scared I'm going to hurt you? I'm not that kind of person. This is a razor." Kaito lifted his wrist, placing what Saguru could barely make out was the edge of the blade close to his shirt. "I'm sure I've pissed you off more than a little at this point. Hurt me."

"No!" Saguru tried to take his wrist back but he couldn't free it. Kaito saw this and let go.

"You're right, I shouldn't be holding you. Now that you can and now that you're angry, hurt me."

"Why would I do that?"

"You're assuming I would. That means that some part of you thought about it before now. Come on. I can't fight a blade in the dark that I can only faintly make out. You're the one in power now."

"That doesn't matter." Saguru patted the bed until he found an empty spot to put the weapon down.

"Just because I'm stronger right now, doesn't mean I'm going to hurt you. I don't know where you got this twisted version of me from and frankly it's ticking me off, but I'm not that kind of person either. Can you see why I've been angry? It's like you gave me the knife and have been waiting for me to cut you all day. I don't like it." The bed moved slightly as Kaito shook his head. "I don't even like thinking about it."

"But you could. Kuroba-kun, you could get angry enough at me. I'm sure of it. I've seen the way you-"

"Have I done anything? Seriously Hakuba-kun, what made you start feeling his way? I don't hurt people. Ever. I care more than you say I do and I don't like it when you think you know me. I'm human. I feel these things. If you don't feel safe around me than keep the damn razor."

"I don't want it."

"Than do you trust me or not? I've done nothing but try to help you and I don't like being treated like some criminal that could flip at any second. I'm not that kind of person and I thought you would know that by now. _It's not like I have very many friends outside of school." _

"Kuroba-kun," Saguru raised an eyebrow. "Did you just call me your friend?"

"Don't you think I would have left you at Kudo-kun's or the professor's if I didn't? Do you think I would have let some girl I don't even know stay here if I didn't trust you? Think for a moment. You're a detective so start acting like one."

"And you're the one in charge. You could turn me away if you wanted."

"And you could do the same to me if our positions were switched and I was at your house. I can't help that I live here. The only thing I can control is what I would do and kicking you out on the street because of some petty argument wouldn't be one of them. If anything _this_ has got me mad. Does it look like you're making your bed on the sidewalk?"

"Stop throwing questions at me."

"Then answer them!"

"You're right" Saguru said quietly, letting his mind talk for him. He didn't like being proved wrong, even when the outcome was better. "I guess I've been letting my imagination get the better of me. If you would explain some of the aspects of your reasoning, it wouldn't hurt."

"I can't." Kaito ruffled his hair, the magician's hand feeling rough against his head. "You've lived without the knowledge before now. I don't see why you still can't."

"It's pretty infuriating." Saguru sighed, letting himself relax. Kaito wasn't the demon in the shadows he had been. Now he was just a teen, sitting in the dark and pouting like a child. It made him laugh.

"You're damned infuriating yourself." Kaito picked him up and put him on the floor. "I can't take Ai-kun tomorrow. I won't be home until late. Make sure she gets to the lab. I don't want her going on her own."

"Ai-san's a big girl," he said with a smile, finding his blanket easily against the off white carpet, grey in the dark. "I would have taken her even if you hadn't asked. I thought you knew _me_ at this point. Girls come first."

"Womanizer," Kaito muttered warmly. "You think you're such the ladies man, don't you?"

"I have to admit, I don't think I'm better at it than you. I've heard Kid wins the heart of every lady he crosses."

"Too bad I can't do it."

Saguru frowned, thinking that Kaito had just denied being the Kid again. He thought they'd gotten over that. Then he realized that he'd been talking about himself when he wasn't the thief. Kaito didn't have many admirers and, besides Akako, none of the females in their class showed much interest. Aoko was an exception.

"Have you even tried? If you can do it as Kid, I'm sure you can do it without the gaudy outfit."

"But that's not me. Why try to be someone I'm not?"

Saguru looked over at him in the dark. "So who is the real you?"

"You'll just have to figure that out."


	13. Missed Engagements

Well, sorry about this. My grandfather just died and I couldn't help writting about it. You can't predict these types of things,  
so I let it happen in the story as well. It now plays a rather large part in the story as well, but it should only last a few chapters.

And I've said this in my other story as well because people aren't doing it. Please review.

Thanks.

_**

* * *

**_

_**Chapter 13: Missed Engagements**_

Saguru couldn't get Kaito's next target out of his head. The news reports at the scene started appearing from early morning, describing in detail how impossible it was to get in. Each room had motion sensors and there were old fashioned traps that reminded Saguru of a treasure hunting movie. In a way, they were protecting a treasure, but the set up was better suited for cartoons.

A white diamond, valued higher than most of Kid's other articles, was owned by a large corporate businessman, eager to keep it in his possession. He made sure the media was on his side, confidant that all the attention would mean that Kid couldn't possibly slip through his defensives. Saguru sighed to himself. If anything, it made Kaito's job easier.

"Bye mom." Kaito was finishing up breakfast in the kitchen. Saguru had gotten up hours ago and eaten alone. He preferred it that way. His phone rang just as the magician was about the walk out the door.

"Here, give me." Kaito held out his hand and chewed the toast that was currently in his mouth.

"Don't say anything stupid." Hakuba hugged the phone close to his chest so Kaito couldn't take it without his permission. The magician sighed.

"I won't."

He handed it over, some inner reserve holding onto it tighter than he should have so that Kaito had to pull it away. The magician frowned at him, holding toast in one hand and his phone in the other. "Hello?"

Saguru was surprised at how easily Kaito imitated his voice. He had yet to hear the magician pull it off. He'd heard about it from the Inspector but never been privy to a live demonstration.

"What? When?" Kaito's voice turned serious, putting Saguru on edge. There was a full minute of silence while something was explained to him, Saguru feeling left out. It was his phone call after all. He deserved to know what was being said.

"I'll have to call you back." Kaito hung up, dropping his school bag and sitting down on the couch. He kept the phone.

"What is it?" Saguru saw the dark shadows that had returned. They looked the same way they did when he'd seen the magician a few days before. It had never been fully explained to him what had happened.

"Sit down." Kaito patted the couch. "And whatever you do, don't do anything reckless."

"You make it sound like I would."

The magician kept his expression neutral, looking over Saguru's body. "You might. I might if I were in your situation."

Saguru started at the phone still in Kaito's possession. "And just what situation am I in besides the obvious one?"

"I shouldn't be the one telling you this." Kaito shook his head, looking upset. "I should have given you the damn phone until you needed me to talk. It wasn't like I was- Never mind." Kaito sighed, closing his eyes. He let the silence drag on for a few seconds. "Your grandfather died last night."

"What?" Saguru looked at him in confusion. He must have heard him wrong. "_My_ grandfather?"

"Yeah." Kaito handed his phone back. "That was your dad. They don't know how he died yet, but he died in his sleep. The funeral will be in a few days from now."

Saguru stood where he was. There wasn't a rush of emotion or even a trickle. There was a small part of him that was just suddenly empty and he had nothing to fill it with. It didn't hurt and he wasn't crying. It was just – empty.

"You okay?"

Saguru looked up. The magician looked worse than he felt and, if anything, that made Saguru start to feel something.

"I'm fine. It was just so sudden." His grandfather wasn't old. His father was forty-five and his grandparents on his father's side were both in their sixties. His grandfather didn't even _look_ old.

The man had taken care of him far more than his father had, when his parents were first together and had gotten into so many fights that the man had to come and take Saguru away so he wouldn't be a part of it. It was why he and his grandfather were so close. The first nine years of knowing another human being, Saguru had always idolized this strong silent man who could take him away from the screaming and show him the wonders of science.

It didn't hurt him yet, but he felt tears running down his face. His grandfather was really gone?

He looked at his hands, too small to match the size they had been. He fisted them. He wouldn't even be able to go to the funeral if he looked like this! What was he supposed to do? He was going to go, even if it would bring up questions. No one would stop him even if his whole family could recognize him.

"I'll talk to Ai-kun. See if I can't help advance her research any faster with less than legal means. Don't worry about it." Kaito put a hand on his head. It felt strangely reassuring and only brought more tears. There were a lot of things that Saguru wanted at the moment, and time alone was the first thing on his list. He nodded to the magician and went back up to the room, not caring that it wasn't his own and not bothering to turn the lights on.

He sat on the floor, shades drawn, leaving him in the dark to cry silently to himself. Someone who he'd talked to only a few days ago, who he thought of as a father more than his own, was gone and he couldn't even be there with his family. He was stuck alone in a room that wasn't his, faced with a problem he couldn't solve, to get over the death of a man he loved.

He didn't come out for hours.

…

Saguru blinked his eyes open, feeling numb and slightly sick. His body was shaky when he got off the carpet where he must have fallen asleep.

Opening the door slowly, Saguru looked around. The television was on downstairs so someone must have been up. It was dark out and he couldn't make out his watch. He didn't feel like turning the light on and blinding himself.

Walking down the stairs, he found Kaito's mother was the one with the television on. She was watching a late night special with some craftsman who she didn't seem to be paying any attention to.

"Saguru-kun." She blinked her eyes when she saw him at the foot of the stairs. "How are you doing?"

"Better." He looked around. "Where is everyone?"

"I don't know." Kaito's mother sighed. "Kaito disappeared. I got a phone call that he missed school today. I haven't seen Ai-chan since early this morning. My very annoying and ungrateful son took the time to tell me in two brief sentences what happened to you and not to bother you, but other than that I've heard nothing for either of them."

"Why were you watching television? Are you worried?"

"Of course I am. More so because of this." Kaito's mother changed the station to a news anchor, looking around in confusion.

_- first time that we've seen Kaito 1412 late to show. His target is still safe and the police here are on edge. For the thief to be twenty minutes late already without notice has made his fans excitable. Law enforcement has already had to arrest several people for disturbing the peace. We don't –_

Kaito's mother switched it back to the man talking about how to correctly add a coat of paint onto a wooden shelf. "You see? I'm very worried. I mean, he could at least have the decency to call me and tell me he'd be out late."

Saguru flipped open his phone and found Kaito's number. There were a lot of names he had to go through, the majority of which he'd only talked to once, if ever on his phone. He'd put them in there as a safety measure in case he ever needed to contact any of them.

"Did you try calling him?" Saguru asked as the phone rang. Kaito's mother held up her hands.

"I called him off the house phone but he didn't pick up."

Saguru waited, getting the same response that she had. He called Shinichi next.

"Hello?" the other detective sounded agitated. "What do you want?"

"Ai-san's cell phone number. She never gave it to me and I can't get in touch with _him_." Saguru thought it was best to refer to Kaito that way. It wouldn't give anyone reason for suspicion if he was overheard and Shinichi would understand.

"I don't know if she wants me to, but it sounds like you need to call her." Shinichi took the phone away from his ear and repeated the number to Saguru. He didn't need to write it down.

"Thank you Kudo-kun. Sorry if I interrupted anything."

"Trust me, it was nothing important."

Saguru could hear Korogo yelling in the background, and he smiled to himself. "I'll call you later."

"'Kay. Bye." Shinichi hung up.

Saguru pressed in the buttons for Ai's phone and waited two rings before it was answered.

"Hello?"

There was the sound of a loud crash in the background following her words. Saguru heard someone swear.

"Hi, is Kuroba-kun with you?"

"I believe he was the one responsible for that explosion just now."

"_Hey!_" came a reply from the magician, making it to the transceiver.

Saguru sighed. "Tell him he's late and he's had his mother worried."

"Will do." Ai didn't ask for any explanation. She turned to the magician and mirrored his words loud enough for Saguru to know that she was following his orders. There was another swear. "_What time is it?" _

Ai didn't answer, turning to speak into the phone. "I can't check the time while I'm talking to you. What is it?"

He took out his pocket watch and looked at it.

"A quarter after eleven." Again she mirrored his words. Again there was a swear. He'd never heard Kaito cuss so much. The phone sounded like it was taken out of her hand. This was further proved when it was Kaito's voice that came over the line.

"Is it that bad? I kinda lost track of time. Tell mom I'm sorry."

"You can apologize to her when you get home. If you'd pick up your phone, it would make things easier."

"I don't have my phone." There was an angry growl added there. "I'll get it back when this is over though. Tell mom I'll call her next time. She shouldn't worry." Kaito let out a sigh. "I mean, if something happened to me the whole world would hear about it."

"Where are you anyway?"

"Two freaking hours away! I'm sooo late!" Saguru could hear as Kaito tripped over something, trying to hand the phone back. "I won't be back till tomorrow! Tell mom!"

Then he was gone and Ai was back on the line.

"I'll see you tomorrow then Hakuba-kun. Tell your mother that I said goodnight and that we're both safe."

"I will. What are you two doing?"

"I thought that was perfectly clear. We're trying to help you. Kuroba-kun nearly dragged me out of the house without explaining anything. I heard you lost a family member."

"Yeah." Saguru said quietly. "I did. He was like a father."

"Well, I can understand it. I've lost both my parents. It's not the end of the world though. You'll be fine." Saguru wasn't sure if she was trying to be nice or trying to be realistic. It came out sounding both.

"I'll see you tomorrow then." He was feeling numb as it was. All the crying had left him empty and slightly hungry. He knew his voice was rougher and more monotone that it normally should have come out, but he didn't seem to care enough to try and sound normal. Kaito doing something nice for him didn't even register in his emotions, even as his brain told him over and over again that he should thank him at the very least for trying.

A few other things clicked without dragging out any of his emotions. Kaito had ruined his reputation for him. Helping him had come before the gem, or necklace, or whatever Kid had said he was going to steal. Saguru had accused him only last night of not caring, and the gem seemed pretty damned important to the magician then. Saguru had new puzzle pieces but not the frame of mind to try and match them.

"Goodbye then." Ai hung up. Saguru looked at Kaito's mother.

"They won't be home until tomorrow. It seems they got caught up in something because of me. They didn't say where they were, but it didn't sound like they were close."

"So I should probably call him out of school then."

Saguru hadn't even been thinking about that. How much school had he missed so far? He had planned to graduate. So far his detective career and his country hopping hadn't held him back. He wasn't going to be in a class of students younger than him, so he hoped he wouldn't be gone long enough to warrant it. His father could only pull so many strings.

"Saguru-kun, you haven't eaten anything since breakfast, are you hungry?" Kaito's mother looked concerned. "You should really eat."

"I don't feel like it. I think I'm going to go back to sleep. I didn't rest very well."

"Then come here." The woman held out her hands in a welcoming fashion. Saguru stared at them with half-closed eyes. He shrugged inside his mind, His body too tired to carry out the thought. If she wanted to hug him, he could let her. It wouldn't kill him.

So he walked over to her with his own arms raised, his mind already have fallen back to sleep. He didn't want to think right now.

But her arms didn't wrap around him. They lifted him up off the ground and placed him on her lap. Saguru was surprised, but the empty feeling that he'd been carrying around since he woke up kept the shock of it from reaching him. She leaned him in of her arms, and even though his body was smaller than it had been, he still felt the mildest tinge of unease when his head rested near her collarbone.

"You go to sleep then. I'm tired too." She placed her cheek lightly against his hair, her warm breath flipping around the finer strands.

Saguru knew he should be feeling embarrassed but he didn't have the capacity for it at that moment. He let his eyes close, the emotion-filled headache he'd acquired fading as his consciousness did.

For once, Saguru was just too tired to care.

...

"Hakuba-kun."

Someone was shaking him but Saguru didn't want to open his eyes. If he opened them, he'd have to face the real world. He didn't want to do that right now.

"Come on you little pervert, wake up!"

Okay, that voice was enough to wake some of the buried down emotions. Kaito sure knew how to wake him up. Indignation rang clearly across his consciousness at the unjust accusation. He lifted his head to face the magician. Start up an argument if he had to. When he opened his eyes, the world was fuzzy and his head was killing him.

Saguru could feel where tear tracks made their way down his face. They were dry. He hadn't remembered crying.

"About time you woke up." Kaito moved away from him where he'd been leaning forward, looking bored. "It's already noon. You know how long you slept?"

Saguru rubbed his eyes. "Yes. After you left, I slept for around eight hours. If it's noon now, I slept again for another twelve or so hours."

"Of course you'd know." Kaito sighed. "I'd be more worried if you didn't."

Saguru clutched the watch in his pocket. It was even more special to him now. His grandfather had been the one who'd given it to him. It had been a keepsake of his from his own father and, instead of giving it to his son, he'd kept it and given it to Saguru. It meant the world to him.

"Well," Kaito put a hand up to his arm. There was a large bandage running down from his wrist to his elbow. Saguru wasn't the only one who noticed.

"Kaito! What happened this time?"

Both boys jumped. Saguru forgot he'd been in her lap. He made his way as delicately as he could to sit next to her on the couch. Kaito drew his arm back and hide it behind his body. "It's not what you think!"

"He tripped."

Ai was suddenly next to the magician like his shadow. Saguru couldn't tell if she'd just shown up or if she'd been there the whole time. "When we were-" Her voice cut off. "Where we were, Kaito-kun had a run in with a tray of beakers. I think the beakers won."

"Hey, that wasn't funny!" Kaito was glaring at the girl's light smile. "That stuff burned! I wouldn't have minded if the beakers were empty!"

Kaito's mother relaxed, looking tenderly at her son. Saguru didn't have to wonder why. He knew that the Kid had been shot at before. It must worry her all the time. Even something as small as Kaito cutting his arm on glass had gotten her worried. Not that it was a small thing. Saguru knew Kaito liked to hide his injuries and if he was showing off such an obvious wound, it was too serious not to have covered up.

"Where did you two go anyway? To some place you can't mention?"

Kaito's eyes narrowed at him before closing them. When the magician opened them again, he looked bored. "It wasn't anywhere interesting."

"That's what I thought."

Kaito let out a small laugh, his smile turning sad when looked down at him. "I'm sorry. I got some things further along but it will take time. I need to see a few more friends tomorrow with Ai-kun. If you can call your father and ask him to postpone the funeral for a few days at least, it will help."

Saguru felt his mood darken without his consent. Even his body betrayed him by sloping lower into the couch. He only partially tried to fight it. "I take it you know when the funeral is even though _I _was never told?"

"Thursday. Your father didn't say over the phone. I took a detour on the way back to find out for myself."

Today was Saturday. That wasn't long. Here he'd been hoping for a cure in a few weeks. Now he wanted one in less than five days. No, wait. He'd fallen asleep on Saturday. It had to be late Sunday now. That meant less than four.

"I'll call him and see what I can do. Wait." Saguru put a hand up to his forehead. "I don't feel like going to find Kudo-kun right now. You can call him."

"I can put him on speaker and you can tell me what to say." Kaito looked serious. "This shouldn't be my conversation. I don't want to intrude on your family. "

"Out of all things, that's what concerns you right now?" Saguru looked up. Kaito eyes averted from his own and his face continued with its bland expression. Saguru had seen the grief though. He tried, but he couldn't recognize where it came from.

"I have a temporary antidote but Kaito-kun won't let me give it to you." Ai spoke up. "It has a pretty high chance of having negative consequences. The choice is yours though and, as much as I appreciate Kaito-kun's help, I thought it best you knew your choices. I've told you before that I've given it to Kudo-kun. I can't say it will work as well for you."

"I thought we already had this argument." Kaito turned on her. "It could kill him."

"It's a very slim chance when used the first time because I don't need very much toxins to stabilize it, thanks to Kudo-kun's discovery before I met him. It should be relatively safe."

"Should be-"

"Kuroba-kun," Saguru interrupted. "Thank you, but I don't take chances like this normally anyways. If I need to, I like knowing that there's still a chance I can go. I'll still call my father if you want, but thinking back on it, I have a lot of family members overseas. I doubt the date can be changed."

"Well then, damn it, I'll keep trying! You're not going to take something that could kill you!"

Saguru lowered his head. "If our positions were switched, you would. I know what kind of risks you take on a daily basis. Why are you so afraid of me taking the same?"

"It's not the same!"

"I'm not in the mood to fight with you right now." He laid his head back. Saguru still felt very tired. Books had told him emotional trauma could hit worse than physical, so he knew it wasn't anything strange, but he didn't like feeling so tired. He also didn't like Kaito winning an argument by default. That thought helped his mind from falling any further into despair. It felt worse than losing his father.

"Fine." Kaito turned to his mother. "I'm not going to be in school, ahh… probably until after the funeral. I'm going to keep trying. The teach usually doesn't call. I do skip a lot." Kaito sighed. "But five days is pushing it. Don't be surprised to get a few phone calls."

"I already expected as much." Kaito's mother smiled at him. "Some things are more important than school, but don't go too far. I don't want anything to happen to you."

"I'll try not to." Kaito closed his eyes. Saguru looked up at this point, his own gaze growing hazy again. The magician looked just as tired as he was, and Kaito wasn't even dealing with loss. From Ai's earlier words, it sounded like they'd gone pretty far and they had left early. It was at least one in the afternoon now. Had Kaito slept at all?

"Did you ever get the gem?" Saguru had been wondering it for a while now but hadn't voiced it. Kaito turned to him with a wary look.

"If you're talking about Kid, no. He sent a notice to the police that it had lost his interest for the time being."

"Why?" Saguru couldn't think of a valid reason that Kaito would cancel something so important to him. Kaito _had_ left after his call. He had to have. It sounded like he was rushing.

"Honestly?" Kaito's eyes were dark. "I think he had more important things to do. It wasn't a high priority anyway. Maybe if it weren't a white diamond but-" Kaito shrugged. "Like I said. It was something that could be let go of."

Saguru nodded, trying to comprehend two contradictory things now that he'd been told straight from Kaito. Not only had he said he couldn't cancel the heist to prove that he cared about someone else, but then he _had_ canceled it. Saguru couldn't understand what the magician was getting at.

Kaito's stomach growled, ending all thoughts on the matter as the magician looked embarrassed.

"Sorry. I guess I forgot to eat."

"Kaito, go fix something for yourself and Ai-chan. I'm sure you've had her go without food as well. I hope you don't mind if I give Saguru-kun your bed."

"I ate." Ai spoke up. "Unlike some, I know when to take a break."

"Tsh." Kaito looked away. "I lost track of time. It's not my fault. And I don't mind him having the bed. Just make sure he gets his detective germs out of it when I get back."

"When will that be?"

Kaito and his mother locked eyes. Hers were caring where Kaito's were tired. The magician also had placed a hand around his stomach to try and keep it from making noise in the silence. Of the two of them, his mother looked like the stronger one. It was something Saguru hadn't expected.

"I don't know. Some time before Thursday."

"Be safe."

Kaito nodded to her and walked off to the kitchen while Ai shrugged at him. "I guess that means I won't be here either. The travel time does make everything more difficult though, so I can understand it. He's trying harder than I would have expected."

Ai's sea colored eyes looked up at him. Saguru could sense the weak bond they had formed over the past few days. It felt more like they were some mixed up family at this point instead of four very different people forced into close quarters with one another. "I'll see you both later then. I'm sure Kaito-kun's going to try and leave as soon as he can."

"Ai-kun!" Kaito peeked his head back in the room. "Sorry about forcing you to come, but I kinda need you. If you need anything grab it now." Then he disappeared again.

Ai sighed something gentle and soft and full of compassion. "See?"

"We'll see you in a few days then. Take care of each other."

"Um." Saguru looked up from his phone. "Can you ask Kuroba-kun if I could borrow him for a moment?"

"Sure, I'll get him."

Ai disappeared in the kitchen. It took a few minutes but she came back with Kaito who looked more awake than he had, with a blue bag hanging over his shoulder.

"You wanted something?"

Saguru got off the couch and started up the stairs. "I need you to speak for me. I've received a few phone calls that I need to return."

"Okay, I'll be right there."

Saguru took his phone out as he waited on Kaito's bed for the magician to finish up whatever he was doing. Another ten minutes went by before he joined him in the room.

"Sorry about that. Who do you want me to talk to?" Kaito sat on the bed and tried to look at his phone screen.

"My father called back. That comes first." Saguru handed his phone over, feeling the vaguest unease at doing so. "Do what you said you would before and put it on speaker phone. I'll tell you what to say."

Kaito hit the call button before he was finished speaking. "I got it."

The phone rang four times before it was picked up.

"Hello?"

"Hi father," Saguru whispered. Kaito mirrored his words in his old voice. "Did you need to speak with me?"

"I just wanted to make sure that you were okay. Your grandmother and I are planning out the funeral arrangements. I'm sure that the last call was pretty vague."

"Yes," Saguru whispered. Kaito even relayed the tone when he spoke back. "How did he die?"

"Doctors say it was a heart attack. He died in his sleep peacefully at about three in the morning. There was nothing that anyone could have done."

"I see." Saguru closed his eyes and let himself picture his grandfather's house. How the man must have died alone. His grandmother on his father's side had died years before, but she'd been good friends with his grandmother on his mother's side. It was how his father and mother had gotten together. So his grandfather died in his house at night, in the dark, alone.

"The funeral is this Thursday at three. If you have paper I can tell you the address."

Kaito moved to a side table that was on the other part of the room and pulled out a pad of paper and a pen. "I'm ready."

His father gave them the address and sighed.

"I'm sorry about this Saguru. I know you haven't gotten to spend much time with him since you came back to Japan. I'm sure that hurts but my dad loved you. Heck, he loved you more than he loved me. He wouldn't want you to be sad. Come home."

Saguru felt the tears in his eyes. His father wasn't the best dad in the world. In fact, they disagreed with each other more often than not. Now they shared a common loss and he couldn't be there with him. It was something natural that should have happened and yet, he was stuck at Kaito's house, away from his family.

"I'm sorry, but I can't. I have- I have things going on right now that I can't leave alone."

Kaito hesitated before repeating his words over the speaker. He added 'I'm sorry', where Saguru hadn't and he appreciated it.

"Well then. I'll see you on Thursday and take care of yourself."

Saguru nodded, indicating Kaito should say whatever he wanted as a goodbye. The magician did, adding on that his father should take care of himself as well. Saguru liked that one of them was thinking.

Kaito hung up, opening the phone and going to his contacts. "Who's next?"

"Baaya."

Kaito nodded. The next phone call was short. Baaya was in tears and Saguru spent most of the time consoling her instead of it being the other way around. The woman was very worried and wanted him back home as well. Saguru had to refuse again and he hated it.

After that Kaito handed him the phone back. "If they call again, they'll just have to wait. I don't-" The magician shook his head. "That's selfish. Call me if you need me to play mediator."

"But you don't want to." He looked up at Kaito with understanding eyes.

"No, I don't. That doesn't mean I don't have to. There are things that I do that I don't like because I have to. This is just another one." He sighed. "I don't like leaving you alone here. If you need anything, go to my mom. She'll understand."

Saguru thought back on their last conversation. Kaito had lost his own father and his mother had lost a husband. If anything, she would more than understand. Saguru nodded.

"I'm sorry for making you do that."

"It's no problem. Keep yourself safe until Thursday and hopefully I can get you that antidote you need. I don't- Don't take that other one. I- Don't die." Kaito's eyes were serious. "No matter what, don't die. It's not worth it. I'll dress up as you if I have to and disguise you as well. I can say that you're a kid I couldn't leave alone on a case. Anything."

"Thanks for the offer. I hope I don't have to take it." It did mean a lot to him though. The magician didn't like death. He knew as much. Kaito would also be stuck with his families emotions. There were plenty of them who hated him and wouldn't like running into him at the funeral.

"Right, what am I saying?" Kaito grinned. "I'll have it fixed. I've never failed yet!"


	14. Awakening

Thank you Sirana and the others who said as much. It helped writing it out and changing  
it around in this story so it wasn't something as personal. I'm actually more worried about my  
great-grandmother at the moment, because she lost her son and I know it's so much harder  
on her than it is on me. (My grandfather was only in his fifties and no one was expecting it. Saguru's  
was a little older)  
Besides the family situation (though I have two family members like that who don't act on anything)  
A lot of the things going into this chapter and the next were close to what happened to me.  
(So I'm hoping I was able to keep Saguru in character through it. I think so)  
And you never seen any of Saguru's family members besides his father (who doesn't even get a name)  
so I improvised and made up my own scenario about that.

I appreciate your words, and thank you. It means a lot.

_**

* * *

**_

_**Chapter 14: Awakening**_

By the time Thursday came around, Saguru was back to feeling somewhat normal. He'd cried all that he was going to alone. His grandfather had meant a lot to him, but that didn't mean his life was over. There was still Baaya, and his father if he _really_ needed someone that he needed to talk to. The large hole that was missing inside of him would take time to heal and hopefully it would stop hurting so much.

Kaito showed up with Ai sometime late Wednesday night. Kaito looked like he was ready to fall over and Saguru quickly got off of his bed where the magician promptly took it over and fell asleep.

"He hasn't gotten more than two hours of sleep since we've been gone," Ai explained. "Then he doesn't even let me knock when we get here." She shook her head. "He should have gotten sleep earlier."

"So?" Saguru looked between the two of them. Kaito already beyond acknowledging him.

"We couldn't do it. There simply wasn't enough time." Ai took a medicine pill bottle out of her pocket. "But I've got a temporary antidote that has almost no chance of killing you. We've been working on it for the past twenty-four hours. I even got Kaito-kun to say you could take it."

"Thank you." Saguru took the bottle.

"It was thanks to him. It surprised me by how familiar he is with molecular physics. If it weren't for him, we wouldn't have gotten as far as we did. If he put his mind to it, he could pursue any career he wanted. He wastes his talents playing thief in the night."

Saguru smiled. "That's the first time I've heard you criticize him."

Ai shrugged. "I didn't know how far his talents extended before."

He hugged the bottle close to himself. He'd been worried for some time when he hadn't gotten any word from them. As much as Kaito disliked the idea, he'd been willing to take the chance of killing himself to go. It wasn't something he could miss. "Well, thank you, even if you don't want it."

She nodded to him, her own eyes looking tired. "It's late. Get some sleep. You'll need it for tomorrow."

Saguru nodded in return and took out the sheets he'd been sleeping on in the days before Kaito's absence. The bed was far more comfortable but he didn't care much at that moment. He'd not only have to visually face the loss of his grandfather tomorrow, but the wrath of his family as well. As well liked as he was in the community as a whole, many of his Japanese family members detested him for his heritage. His father was above their criticisms, so they fell on his shoulders alone most of the time.

It didn't take him long to fall asleep. He never had much endurance unless he had something to focus on. Right now, all his worries made his stomach uneasy but weren't solid enough to keep him up.

The sun woke him.

That was a surprise. Saguru was used to being woken up by either Kaito's mother or the magician himself. They, for some reason, were early risers. How Kaito pulled that off with his late night excursions was a mystery.

Now the magician was the one who was still asleep. His arm hung off the bed and he was faced away from Saguru. Kaito's deep breathing showed that he'd still be asleep for some time to come if Saguru left him alone.

So he folded up the sheets and checked his pockets for the time. It was already ten in the morning and they would both have been late for school if either of them were attending. Saguru had other plans and Kaito didn't look like he could stay awake long enough to learn anything.

He left the room, an uneasy feeling trailing behind him when no one else seemed to be awake. The door to the girls' room was closed, so he left it that way and went down into the kitchen to make himself some toast.

It was harder than he thought it would be but a chair sufficed when he couldn't reach anything.

It wasn't until eleven thirty when Kaito's mother and Ai shuffled their way down the stairs. Saguru was sitting in front of the television and watching the news. It caught his interest and it stopped the house from being as quiet as it was.

"Good morning Saguru-kun. I've been wondering if you wanted a ride there or if you were going to take the bus. I've got a car out back if you'd like me to take you."

Saguru nodded to her. "I'd appreciate it. I don't want to risk being seen out in public anyway. As unlikely as it is that these people know my name, there's a chance that someone could recognize me on the street." It hadn't been one of his greater fears. After all, it had been dark. The only thing those two could have seen was his hair color and plenty of people bleached their hair. Not that he did. He could have been anyone, especially considering he'd been in a hotel. All the clues pointed to him being a tourist.

"By the way, you'll have around twelve hours with that pill. I could have made it last longer, but unlike Kudo-kun, I don't want you to develop an immunity to it. So I gave you a lower dose." Ai left the room and wandered into the kitchen, not caring what Saguru had to say to that. Twelve hours was more than enough. He didn't plan on staying any longer than was respectable for his grandfather.

"I'll take you when I finish breakfast then. When's the service?"

"Three." Saguru looked down. "He was a Christian though. I don't know what your family is, so you might not like being there."

"We're not religious," Kaito's mother waved him off. "And if you hadn't noticed, even if we were, we're a very tolerant family. If the service is at three, you'll want to be there at noon. I'm sorry for making you late."

"It's fine. Make me as late as you want. I don't want to be there too early." He sat back comfortably into the couch and focused his attention back onto the screen. A house in the eastern block of Nagasaki had caught fire. No one was injured but the clues pointed towards it being a malicious act.

Kaito's mother didn't ask any questions and went into the kitchen to start breakfast, even with how late it was. As the time passed, Kaito woke up and wandered down the stairs with bleary eyes to look at him.

"Sorry about that." The magician stretched. "I didn't mean to kick you out of the bed so quickly but I wasn't going to make it much longer." He was grinning now. His eyes were brighter but there were still bags under his eyes and he looked like he could do with some more sleep. "Did Ai-kun give you the medicine?"

"Yes, thank you." Saguru turned off the television. The news had ended long ago anyway in it had turned into some drama series. He checked his watch again to see that it was already six minutes to one.

"Do you mind some company?"

Saguru frowned and looked up from the black hands hidden safely behind the glass. "What?"

"If you don't want me coming, that's okay. I just-" Kaito shrugged. "Never mind. I take it back."

"Please."

Kaito's eyes widened and Saguru turned his head away. He was acting like a child and he hated it, but he didn't want to go there alone. His grandfather wouldn't be there to protect him now and his father wasn't any more helpful than a wet towel. He knew that the emotions would hit him hard too, and he wanted to have the magician there as some incentive not to let him start crying.

"'Kay, but I'm going to eat first. I know you can't be hungry but at least have some rice. It'll help in the long run."

Saguru nodded and followed him to the kitchen after a few minutes. He wasn't looking forward to this at all. If he could miss it, he would have. But his grandfather deserved better than that and he would always hate himself if his only excuse not to go was his own weakness.

Kaito handed him a bowl when he entered and a pill in the other hand.

"Ai-kun says you need to be sick for this to work. Sorry. I didn't know."

"It's fine. What is it?" Saguru looked at the tiny blue pill as if it could give him the answers he needed.

"It'll give you a cold. That's it. I've come to believe that when you have your immune system down, it gives the antidote dominance, otherwise it won't have as potent an effect."Ai spoke up from her seat across the table.

"So I'm going to be sick too? This day keeps looking better and better."

Kaito and his mother both let out small laughs at the way Saguru must have spoken. He wasn't trying to be funny but their laughter did lighten his own mood. He put the pill in with the antidote for the time being and ate the rice he was given.

When he was finished, Kaito was also done. It was amazing how fast the magician downed his food in so short a time. Ai and Kaito's mother had already started eating so they all finished around the same time.

"You can go with him." Ai indicated to him and Kaito. "He'll need a change of clothes too. Remember this isn't a time to have fun. Give him something decent to wear."

"I'm not an idiot." Kaito's smile held some misgivings but he seemed to sober up after.

Ai breathed out a laugh and turned to him. "The antidote will hurt. Try not to scream. You are in a quiet neighborhood."

Saguru shivered but nodded to her.

Both of the boys looked at one another. Kaito was smiling and unsure. Saguru had no doubt that his expression was very similar at that moment. They went up to Kaito's bedroom and the magician pulled out a nice black coat that he'd never seen him wear before and a button up white shirt. The outfit was very similar to what Saguru would have worn. Kaito, of course, must have had many outfits, but it hadn't occurred to him before now.

"You know how easy it would be to dress up as me?" Saguru took the clothes into his hands and felt how smooth the fabric was.

"I've already done it." Kaito smirked. "Twice."

"Twice?" He thought back. He knew that Kaito had dressed up as him once. He'd even taken his coat. But he had no memories of him doing it a second time. "What did you do?"

"Nothing bad." Kaito closed the closet door and went to look for shoes. "What size are you?"

Saguru told him. "Don't avoid the question. What did you do?"

"I helped solve a murder." Kaito got out a pair of black dress shoes and handed them over. "I needed to be a detective to help and Kudo-kun and Hattori-kun were already there. You were the only one left."

"At least you did something useful." Saguru took the large blanket off of Kaito's bed. If he was going to take off he clothes, he certainly wasn't going to do it in front of Kaito.

"I thought you'd be mad at me." Kaito looked at him sideways as Saguru took the first pill and Kaito handed him a water bottle.

"I will be when I have more time to think about it. Count on it." Saguru swallowed it and gave it a few minutes to take effect. He didn't really want to be dealing with a cold, but he would if he had to. He wasn't someone who liked to take chances. He had the blanket wrapped around him and his clothes off already.

He started feeling slightly dizzy after a few minutes and took the antidote then.

It hurt.

It was like the pill took all his blood vessels and constricted them around his heart. He fell to his knees and clutched the sheet tightly around him.

"Hey, you okay?"

Saguru didn't bother answering him. He couldn't anyway. His whole body started to feel like it was constricting on itself. Even kneeling seemed painful and he let himself fall to his side on the floor. There was a hand on his forehead but he only felt it when he moved his head to the side. The world had gone a mix of dark gray and bright white splotches. He couldn't' tell where the pain ended and where he fell unconscious.

…

Saguru blinked his eyes open, feeling the perspiration on his face.

"Jeez, that was scary." Kaito looked down at him from where he must have been on his knees by his head.

The pain was gone now and Saguru got slowly up off the floor, remembering to keep the blanket around himself. He smiled at the fact that, when he stood up, he was no longer shorter than Kaito.

"Here" The magician gave him the clothes to put on, adding a pair of socks and boxers. Saguru didn't like the used clothes but anything was better than being naked. Kaito turned around to give him some privacy.

Saguru got dressed, wishing Kaito would have just left the room all together. He didn't need a guardian to watch over him.

When he was done, he opened the door and turned right to get into the bathroom. The mirror showed his old self and he savored the feeling for a moment before darkening to the thought as to why he was in his old body again. It wasn't for pleasure.

"Happy being taller again?" Kaito asked with a smile when he exited the bathroom. "I liked you better when you were short. It was more fun to mess with you."

"You'll have your chance in a few hours again. This isn't permanent."

"Tsh. I know." Kaito pushed him and Saguru pushed him back simply because he could now. "Mom's waiting in the car."

"Thank you for coming. I appreciate it." He led the way down the stairs and Kaito had to take over to show him the easiest way to get to the back of the house. An old Saturn with cement colored paint waited for them.

Saguru went to the back seat and Kaito followed him. As he looked over he saw that Ai had taken the front seat.

"I'll pick you up when you call. Give me the address." Kaito's mother reached her hand back and Kaito handed over a piece of paper with the information on it. She looked it over. "It will take me at least twenty-five minutes to get there though, so call me in advance."

"I will." Kaito laid back against the darker gray of the interior after putting his seat belt on. His mother nodded and started the car. It only took a few blocks before the magician was asleep.

"I'm surprised he could pass out so easily in a car." Saguru murmured mostly to himself but Kaito's mother overheard.

"Oh, he's fallen asleep in worse. I've seen him sleep through a speedboat ride when we went to the ocean once. We'd been there a few days and the excitement of riding the boat for the third time was gone. He literally fell asleep in the back. I had to sit next to him so he wouldn't fall out of the boat."

"How long ago was that?" It was Ai that asked. Saguru suddenly felt uneasy now that he _was _his old age again. He noticed that he'd been acting less then reputable when he'd been stuck in a younger body. Now the difference was hitting him.

"It was just a few years ago. Aoko-chan went with us that year. The first day Kaito stayed up through the night and she told me she found him sleeping sitting up on the floor. Don't underestimate where my son can fall asleep."

Saguru let his elbow rest against the car frame and opened the window slightly so that it was blowing at his bangs. He would have liked to open it all the way but he wasn't sure if Kaito's mother would have liked it. It was the reason Baaya had gotten a convertible. He didn't like being in closed in spaces if he didn't have to. He wasn't claustrophobic or anything, but it was a close call.

The car ride was quiet because no one wanted to wake Kaito and there wasn't much to say. The trip took a half-an-hour or so and they arrived at a church that looked more like an old school building with a cross added to it.

"Kuroba-kun." Saguru nudged the magician with his hand. Kaito tried to take his shoulder out of touching range and settled against the door.

Saguru could easily see how tired he was, so he let him be and got out of the car. He went over to the diver's window and Kaito's mother rolled it down. "Can I have your number?"

She looked indecisive. "Kaito's going to mad if we don't wake him up."

"He's done quite enough for me already and he needs to sleep. I'm not a child."

She smiled. "You still are to me. I think it would be best if we woke him. Kaito's not one to take being left out easily."

"I'll do it." Ai got out of the car and opened Kaito's door. The magician still had his seatbelt on so he fell out, but the strap caught him.

It was enough to wake him up.

"What happened?" He looked around with wide eyes. Saguru couldn't blame him. That wasn't the best way to wake up and he was shocked that Ai had done it.

"Hakuba-kun's going to leave without you if you don't get up." She left he door open and got back into the front seat. Kaito continued to search the area as he took off the seatbelt to get out, trying to wake up normally without the adrenaline confusing him.

"I'll see you later Mom." Kaito closed the door.

"Goodbye honey." She turned to Saguru. "And take care of yourself. I'll be back soon."

Kaito's mother drove off and he had an even greater feeling that he was seeing his own mother leaving. It wouldn't last forever and he'd have to try and separate himself from Kaito's family after this. Right now he needed the support.

"So, you were going to leave me?" Kaito raised his eyebrows at him.

"I've asked for enough from you. I regret now that I asked you to come."

"Why? Do I smell?"

Saguru couldn't help letting out a laugh when Kaito sniffed himself. The magician had picked out a less formal set of clothes for himself, white but closer to Saguru's fashion then Kid's so that they couldn't be compared.

"Come on then. I'm sure you don't want to stand out here all day."

Saguru sighed, looking around at some of the cars he recognized. His mother's grandparents were here. His father had said that his grandmother had been working on the arrangements with him so that wasn't a surprise. His also noticed his aunt's car. She would have come with her four children and all of them had been taught to hate him. His uncle had died a few years back and it was his first time even seeing his cousins since then. He wasn't looking forward to it.

"Come on!" Kaito started dragging him forward so Saguru had no choice but to follow. When they got closer to the doors, he saw his other aunt and her husband outside smoking. Both glared at him and, by extension, at Kaito who simply smiled and walked past them as if they'd been smiling back.

At that point Saguru took his wrist away from the magician, seeing what it must have looked like.

Kaito grinned back at him, having noticed long before. It helped Saguru ease up more but it made him angry at Kaito as the price.

The room they walked into was nosier then he expected. There were at least ten children running around. Some were as young as two or three and others were around ten to twelve. The other kids glared at him like his aunt and uncle had, but the younger ones smiled. They weren't old enough yet to be taught to hate him.

"Saguru-kun, glad you could make it." One of his older cousins came out to him with his uncle. The boy was sneering at him and his uncle looked angry. "We heard you'd been busy and might not come."

"I took care of what I had to." He didn't give his cousin any ground. For years he and Yamagishi had been compared to one another and because of that, his cousin hated him. Saguru was better learned and had already started up a career for himself. But he had mixed blood so Yamagishi was the one who they counted on. He'd had to work hard to catch up and Saguru knew he was still smarter that the other.

"Who's your friend?" His cousin looked around him and Kaito smiled, bowing his head slightly.

"Kuroba Kaito. It's nice to meet you. Hakuba-kun needed some civil companionship and knew he wouldn't find any here."

Saguru froze. Kaito was still smiling as if he'd complimented his cousin. Yamagishi didn't know what to say and his father was equally at a loss.

"Now wait just a-"

Saguru took Kaito behind him so the magician wouldn't have the chance to say anything again. "He didn't mean it. Ignore him. He's the son of a client who couldn't leave him alone with his attitude while they went out of town. I apologize if he upset you."

"Humph." His cousin got in his face and let an exhaled breath wash over him. "Keep him on a leash then. This is no place for animals."

He tightened his hold on Kaito when he felt the magician move. "I will."

"Good."

His cousin walked away, his uncle frowning and shrugging his shoulders as if he were a piece of bad furniture that didn't sit well in the room.

"Who's the animal?" Kaito growled under his breath.

"Please Kuroba-kun. You're behavior reflects on me so I need you to control yourself. They shouldn't have any reason to bother you unless you start it."

"Fine." Kaito seemed to take in his words but he wasn't sure. The magician was never one to obey. "Unless they _do_ start it."

"Only if they start it with you. I can take care of myself."

"But-"

"Kuroba-kun, please. This isn't the first time. You may only need to deal with them today but I need to do it for the rest of my life. Don't do anything bad."

"All right." Kaito sighed. "You know this is like asking me to swallow nails."

"Then leave."

"And leave you alone to do it? Nah." Kaito looked around. The Japanese side of Saguru's family and the English were obvious. Only two of his cousins from his mother's side were born with brown hair that couldn't be considered one or the other. Both were girls and both were treated with respect by his Japanese family because they had pure English blood, even if they were foreign. Saguru was the only 'mutt' in the family.

"Saguru."

He sighed and greeted his father. "Hello. How are you doing?"

"I was going to ask you that. Have you been in to see him?"

He looked down and tried to smile. "Not yet. I've only just gotten here."

"That's all right. You're grandma would like to see you if you're up for it. She's in the back with the rest of the kids. Take your time." His father patted him on the shoulder and walked off like Saguru knew he would. The man was a coward and didn't like conflict. How he'd even had the gall to marry a foreign woman to begin with was a mystery. Kaito was behind him though. He hadn't been there when his father had shown up and he wondered where he'd gone to in that short time.

Saguru swallowed and walked into the parlor room. There was whispered silence around as he saw his family split into small groups around the large number of chairs. The coffin was in the middle and he found himself looking away. One of his hands searched out his wrist and he held it until he felt comfortable enough to enter.

Two of his younger cousins, Tibias and Yukari, pushed passed him as they made their way to their parents. Tibias made sure to elbow and glare at him as he went by. He was used to him doing more, so it didn't really bother him. Kaito was the one he was worried about when he saw the expression the magician's face.

Saguru tried to ignore it and walked towards his grandmother. His mother was there as well and both greeted him warmly. His grandmother even rubbed a hand down his shoulder.

"How are you doing Saguru?" Her question was sincere and he didn't know how to answer her.

"Managing." He smiled. It was real. As much as the Japanese side of his family disliked him, most of the English side was excepting. A few weren't but he didn't have to see them right now. They hadn't been close enough to be there.

His mother turned to him and there were tears in her eyes. It almost made him start crying with her, but he held back on the emotions. "I'm glad to see you. I'm sorry this had to happen now. You couldn't have spent much time with him."

"No." He took his mother's hand and wished his fingers weren't so cold. "But it's fine. I know he cared about me. I wish I could have been there for him." The tears were in his eyes anyways but he wouldn't let them fall. He shouldn't even have told her as much.

"We all wish that. No one should die alone." She looked over her shoulder at the coffin and he had to turn away again. She saw this when she turned back. "Want me to go up with you?"

He glanced back at Kaito who nodded and seemed to disappear into the background. He had to admit, the magician was good at that.

"Thank you Mother."

"Of course."

They walked up to the coffin and waited while his oldest uncle, his grandfather's first son who he knew his grandfather had hated, was up there with his wife, ten years younger then him, and their infant daughter.

"It couldn't have come sooner." His uncle stared down at his grandfather body and was smiling. Saguru clenched his fists and hoped that no one was watching him. He knew his expression wasn't pleasant.

"Come on." His mother grabbed hold of his wrist and pulled him forward after they left. He could feel eyes on him now and he tried to ignore them. He didn't care right now what his family thought of him. This was about his grandfather and nothing else mattered.

The man looked too young to be it the coffin. His hair was a dark gray and lengthy towards the back, wrinkles marring his forehead but his body was still fit and age hadn't gotten to more than his hair color. His grandfather was such a strong man, he'd never thought he would die so young.

He didn't care if he was crying now. There were people watching him, but it didn't matter. As much as he cried before, seeing someone you love dead in front of you, looking like they could get up and smile and laugh with you again but knowing they won't… it hurt.

His mother held onto his hand and he could hear her trying to stifle her own sobs. She smiled at his grandfather and laid a hand on the coffin before looking up at him.

Saguru had been around his fair share of dead bodies, but this was different. This was something you could never get used to. He placed his hand softly on his grandfather's, which were folded over his chest. There were little trinkets placed inside the coffin with him and Saguru debated whether or not to put the watch in there. It was his grandfather's after all.

He kept it. It was better to keep it as a memory then let it die inside that dark place with his grandfather. Better to keep the memories alive.

Saguru ran a thumb over his grandfather's hands and thank him silently for his help over the years. If it weren't for him, he never would have become a detective. He owned so much to him and yet, he couldn't remember the last time he had thanked him. He'd just demanded the lab for his own personal needs without any thought. He wished their last conversation had been about something important.

They walked away and he bid his goodbyes to the man while his mother got a tissue for herself. Kaito was at his side the minute he stepped away but he said nothing. Saguru wiped his eyes and continued to walk until he was back in the lobby and away from the place where his emotions could get the better of him.

"Thanks for coming with," he told Kaito, watching the magician lean against the wall near a potted plant.

"It's no problem. You didn't really need me anyway. I'm just getting in the way."

Saguru shook his head. "It helps."

Kaito smiled. "Okay then. Are you sure I shouldn't leave? I heard some of your family talk about going out to eat after this."

"Yes, I know." He leaned against the wall next to Kaito. "I'm not sure if I'm going to go."

"I can't blame you." Kaito took out a watch of his own that Saguru had never seen before. It had a green band and roman numerals on it instead of numbers. "The service doesn't start for another hour."

"I know." He didn't, but he'd had a guess at the time. "I'm not looking forward to it."


	15. Family Troubles

I've been working a lot recently (not my own doing) and my great grandmother on my mothers side turned 99 today, so I've had plenty to keep me busy.

As for the story, I had to invent some names because- well, they don't give them any. The only one I managed to write about without naming was Saguru's father.  
I don't like giving them names when I don't have too. I did the same before I knew Kaito's mother's name too.

And yes, I had to force Saguru's grandfather to be Catholic because I was too afraid of messing up a Buddhist funeral, and I wanted to add my own experience in there as well.  
(Obviously though, the family situation is different.)

Thank you everyone for your well wishes.

* * *

_**Chapter 15: Family Troubles**_

Saguru sat in the second row. Kaito had taken the spot on his right after his family had been given the chance to sit next to him. His mother and grandmother were both on his left. He hadn't even tried to sit up front with the immediate family.

There were undeniably eyes on him, as if even sitting with his mother was more than he deserved. The hatred he was feeling towards his family was enough to keep him from feeling too much in other areas, so he welcomed it. The priest had come around to his aunts and uncles already. His great grandmother was up there as well. Saguru hadn't seen her earlier and he knew why now. She wasn't taking her son's death well. She was crying even when she was looking away. His grandfather had been her only child. Though Saguru hadn't seen much of her, he knew she was kind.

As for the priest, he had a dark suit on and a dark red tie with a cartoon character on it which gave Saguru all the wrong impressions of him. The man was Japanese with dark hair slicked back and dark glasses. He was around the same age of his father and carried around an air of not only comfort but his own importance.

"Welcome family members and friends of Hakuba Kichirou. From what I've heard of him, he was an honest and hardworking man. Many breakthroughs in forensic science came about after he started up his career at the age of twenty-nine. Before, after and during this career, he blessed this world with five children, three sons and two daughters all of which are here today to mourn his passing. I didn't know him well, but he sounded like the type of person who could get along with anyone. He had his flaws, as we all do, but we are here today to celebrate his achievements in life."

What's the point? Saguru found himself thinking. The man was dead. It wasn't like they could thank him for any of it currently. This man knew nothing of his grandfather. They hadn't even met before. Yet he was up there, saying some spiel he'd probably said for the last person that was there. They were so nice. They would be missed. They did this and that. What did it matter at this point? He knew what his grandfather had done. He didn't need some man he'd never seen before telling him.

Kaito let out a breath that was too loud and Saguru couldn't help looking over at him. The magician had the same dull look in his eyes that Saguru knew he had as well. If that was anything to go by, they were probably thinking the same thing.

"… with that, he also leaves behind twelve grandchildren and a mother who loved him dearly. Let's all pray that his soul finds peace with all the things he was and wasn't able to do before his death."

Everyone bowed their heads and Saguru found himself wanting to leave. This wasn't a tribute to his grandfather. This was a bunch of people, only a third of which even cared for the man, waiting to see what they'd inherit. He knew that's why he was getting so many glares. His grandfather didn't hide his like for him like most of his family did.

His great-grandmother was in front of him and started to cry. His aunt and her husband were on her other side and pretended they didn't notice. He couldn't take it anymore and placed a hand on her shoulder, rubbing her arm to try and give her some comfort. He felt the tears back in his own eyes and wished that she'd been closer.

Kaito moved over and closed his eyes. Saguru had to lean over him to reach her and he appreciated him not making any more of a spectacle of it than he was. His great-grandmother smiled at him and placed a hand on his before crying again. He let her be and kept in contact so she wouldn't feel so alone.

Towards the end of the service he felt his mother's hand on his knee. He turned back to her and she smiled at him, running a hand down his back.

There were many of his Japanese family members that looked uncomfortable through this. Most of them were Buddhists so it wasn't a surprise to him that none of them had gone to a Catholic funeral before.

"I would like the friends to come up now and say their last goodbyes."

The people in the back rows rose and started forward. Saguru gave his great-grandmother's shoulder a reassuring squeeze before he sat back in his chair. He felt bad enough as it was about his grandfather. He couldn't imagine how she was feeling. She had lost her only son and it wasn't like the rest of his family cared. His grandfather had been an extremist where most of the others were passive.

There were a few people that he could recognize as they walked up to the coffin. Takama and Shijirou from the lab came up. Both were researchers with his grandfather and, though both were older, Saguru knew them well. He wondered briefly what would happen to them now. Was the lab even going to stay open?

The rest were older gentleman and women that his grandfather had met over the years. He could pick out a few he'd seen once or twice, but most were strangers to him.

Then it was the family's turn. He got up with his mother and grandmother. Kaito stood and found a corner of the room to blend into so that he wouldn't be disruptive. Every now and then he would see the magician twitch in want of something, but he made no move to go farther than a few feet from him.

"Who let the mangy cat in?"

Saguru clenched his fist and tired to ignore his uncle's voice. He was the youngest of his grandfather's children and the nosiest. Saguru had been trying to avoid him, but he'd lost sight of the man when he'd stood up.

"I don't know, but it certainly is stinking up the place." His younger cousin cut in. She didn't used to be as bad as Yamagishi but her father had been training her well over the years. Her name was Suki and she'd been caught one time playing with him when they were younger. Her father never let her forget it. Now she hated him for something that wasn't his fault.

His aunt that had been outside smoking laughed. "I agree. I can't believe the riffraff they let in here. You'd think we were in a zoo."

"That wouldn't surprise me."

"Kuroba-kun," Saguru whispered, hearing Kaito's voice over his shoulder but not seeing him. "Be quiet."

"No. It's not respectful." Kaito came in front of him and knelt near the coffin. He could see the magician's hand shake slightly when he reached up to touch it. It shocked him when Kaito kissed to casket and stood before his grandfather's body with one hand resting on his grandfather's shoulder. "You've got a good grandson. I know the rest of your family can't be as bad as their acting. Please forgive them." Kaito bowed and raised his eyes to him before taking his hand. "Say goodbye. Don't let them get to you."

His family was shocked into silence again but they couldn't question his actions. Kaito had been in the right and they had been in the wrong.

"Thank you," Saguru whispered to him. Kaito nodded and let go of him. Standing next to him like a guard dog and yet not directly watching his family.

Saguru took a calming breath and tried to keep his family out of his mind. If something happened, Kaito would be there to stop it.

This is goodbye then, he told his grandfather in his mind. He didn't believe in an afterlife like the rest of his family did, but if there was one, he doubted spoken words were the only thing that could be heard. I'm really going to miss you grandfather. I wish you didn't have to die so soon. I know you couldn't help it.

He took his hand and placed it over his grandfather's. His skin looked darker than it should have but death wasn't an easy thing to hide. At least his grandfather had lived his life the way he wanted.

I'm sorry I couldn't be with you.

Saguru wiped away the tears with his sleeve and felt his mother's hand around his arm. He nodded to her and smiled to show he was okay. They walked away together with Kaito acting as a shadow.

His mother didn't stop when they made it out to the lobby. They continued out the doors until they were past a few smokers and to her rental car.

"I'm sorry you had to put up with that. I wish you didn't have to. I don't care what these people think of you. You're a good son Saguru. Don't you ever forget that." His mother hugged him and he hugged her back, feeling his arms shake slightly.

"I know." He kissed her on the cheek.

"Your stupid father should grow a backbone and tell his brothers that they shouldn't treat you like that."

"It's fine." He separated from his mother. "I'm used to it."

"You shouldn't have to be. It's not fair Saguru. Is it always like this?" She looked back at the funeral home. "They're like vultures."

"I don't get much of it outside the family. Don't worry about it."

"Why don't you come home?" His mother ran a hand up and down his arm. Saguru couldn't help but cough. He didn't know how much of his pains were attributed to too much pent up emotion and how much were actual sickness.

"I can't." And he couldn't. Not now. He was tangled up in too many webs to just walk away from.

"Why? The only reason you came back to Japan was to see that stupid thief wasn't it? You don't have too. There are plenty of thieves back in England. Come home with me."

Kaito snorted. The noise drew both their attentions to him because he blended in so well with the background that they'd forgotten he was there. Saguru laughed lightly.

"No. I've got things I need to do."

"Who are you?" His mother ignored him and looked at Kaito. The magician smiled without his teeth for once and offered her his hand.

"Kuroba Kaito. It's nice to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you too." His mother shook Kaito's hand and turned to face him again. "You brought someone with you?"

"I didn't have much choice. I knew that father wouldn't- It was better to have him than not."

"I couldn't agree with you more." Saguru was shocked when his mother put her hand up in the air and grinned at Kaito. "All for taking your father's family down a notch!"

Kaito high-fived her and grinned back. They both started laughing and Saguru felt appalled at what he was seeing.

"Oh, lighten up Saguru." His mother let out a deep sigh. "It was too stuffy in there anyway. Your grandfather would have been mad to have such a dour funeral. At little laugher goes a long way."

"It's not funny."

"Oh yes it was." She smiled back at Kaito who had never dropped his. "I like this kid. Anyways, are you going to the dinner? I was thinking about not, but hey, I'm not paying. Your grandfather had it all arranged so I thought I would be disrespectful not to go."

"I guess I am," Saguru sighed.

"Then get in. I'll give you both a lift. I only brought your grandmother with me. Your grandfather's sick in bed and couldn't come. Let me go in and get her."

Saguru's mother walked away and Kaito moved closer to him.

"Watch out," he said in a serious tone.

"For what?" Saguru knew better than to looked around so he waited for Kaito to explain.

"That cousin of yours with the black hair and the mole on his nose. He's been watching you this whole time. I think he's going to try and do something."

He had a few cousins with black hair but Yamagishi was the only one old enough to catch Kaito's attention. Saguru didn't care much. They were the same age and he wasn't afraid of the boy.

"It's fine. The will's going to be read in the next few days and I'm betting his father is thinking that I'll get more than I deserve. I won't be in attendance, so it's not like I'll get anything."

Kaito raised his eyebrows. "Do you want to be?"

"I'm happy to come to the wake. I don't need to be there when he's cremated. As for the will, I'd like to have whatever it was my grandfather wanted to give me, but I have this." He gripped the watch in his pocket. "I don't particularly need anything else."

"I don't know how fast we can make a forever kind of antidote, but I'm sure we can pull out another twelve hour one." Kaito met his eyes. "Do you want it?"

"Ask me later."

"All right."

His mother and grandmother came out together. They were easy to spot. Like him, his mother had light blond hair and light blue eyes. The two of them stood out starkly against his dark hair and dark eyed family. His grandmother's hair had turned white years ago prematurely and it curled around her ears. She'd needed to get glasses last year so she wore light brown frames over her own blue eyes.

Kaito stood out starkly against the three of them.

"Hey, watch your back."

Kaito's eyes widened when he saw that Saguru's mother was talking to him. "There's been a lot of talking going on in there and it seems like they don't like you very much. We've got to keep close to one another."

"Don't worry about me." Kaito grinned. "You should look out for yourself. I have experience with getting out of sticky situations."

"Fine. Saguru, you stick close to him then. I don't think they'll do anything to us but they sounded really mad."

"I'll keep my eyes open." Saguru got in the back with Kaito and his mother got angry at the car when she realized she'd gotten in on the wrong side. She and his grandmother switched spots and she started the engine.

"Why couldn't I get a different car?"

"Because mother, you'd be driving on the wrong side of the street then." Saguru looked out the window and watched the as his mother made her way out of the parking lot. The radio had been on loud enough to provide noise without hindering conversation. Kaito was on the phone and whispering. Saguru couldn't catch any of the words.

"So, how do you two know each other? I doubt he's your boyfriend like your uncle is spewing around in there."

Saguru choked on the breath he just took. Kaito laughed. "No he's not! We're classmates."

"Don't worry. We're friends. Hakuba-kun has a way of understating the facts. As of right now, we're actually partners in crime."

His mother laughed and Saguru turned on him. "How is that?"

"We're both annoying the hell out of your family."

"He's got you there, Saguru. You know, I really hate being in Japan. It's bad enough that we have to be formal all the time without adding all the extra work. Do you mind if I call you Kaito? I haven't been in Japan for some time, but I guess I should be calling you -kun. It's too hard for me to remember thought, so it that alright?"

"**It is perfectly fine**." Kaito gave her the peace sign and spoke in English. It really wasn't that bad but it made him laugh anyway. Saguru found it funny when Japanese people tried to speak Americanized English with the eastern accent.

"Hey, you don't sound perfect speaking Japanese either." Kaito stuck his tongue out at him and Saguru stopped laughing.

"Are you insulting my grammar?"

"No, you sound just fine, but the way you annunciate certain words leaves room for improvement." Kaito grinned, changing back to English. "**At leest I can speak well enough to be understood**."

"**He's not that bad.**" His mother turned to look at Kaito when they stopped at a red light. "**You're further along then you should be in school. Can you hold up a conversation yet**?"

"**Sure I can.**" Kaito's thickly accented voice was comprehendible though. He knew most of his classmates couldn't speak as well. "**I have been trying to learn for years. So I may not be perfect, but I am not bad.**"

"**You're not so good with conjectures though, are you?**" His mother smiled, looking through the back mirror this time so that they wouldn't crash.

"**I am okay with them but I am afraid that I will mess them up, so I don't use them.**"

"You need to be a little more fluid, but you are good. Enough of all this thinking now. I've been speaking Japanese for years, even if I don't like it, so I don't mind."

"**But then your mother can not understand what we are saying.**" Kaito looked at his grandmother with a smile. "**Right?**"

"**I guess you're right.**" His mother went back to English now. "**It's a good way to annoy the rest of the family anyway. Do you mind?**"

"**No. I am fine speaking English. Sorry if I do not sound normal though.**" Kaito smiled.

"**It's fine. You may even be able to pick up some useful tips. What about you Saguru? Want to annoy the rest of the family with Kaito and me?**"

He looked away with a shake of his head and a smile. "**Fine, but if they kill us, it's your fault.**"

"**I have never heard you speak before. I like it.**" Kaito grinned at him. "**I am going to get better at it so that you do not get to make fun of me.**"

"**Well, you sound like a three year old right now.**"

"**Better than looking like one.**"

Saguru froze and Kaito winced. His mother and grandmother both didn't understand so they didn't look into it.

"I'm sorry." Kaito reverted back to Japanese. "I didn't mean it."

"I know." He sighed, letting the other language take over for him too. "You're forgiven."

"No, that was stupid of me." Kaito leaned back in the seat and avoided looking at him. "I guess I'm just tired. It's not something that I should joke about."

"I told you. I know you didn't mean it. Trust me. I owe you a lot for today. Thanks for coming."

Kaito laughed. "Don't worry about it. Someone needed to tell them off. I was glad to be there. And don't tell me not to do it again, because I won't listen to you next time. Having to sit there and do nothing was like watching them beat you and being told not to intervene. I did it once." Kaito held up a finger, "Because it wasn't the place to start an argument. I won't be told again."

"Go Kaito! Don't worry, we'll get them!" His mother seemed eager and Saguru shook his head. Kaito was serious though. He'd have to watch out for the magician while they were eating.

His grandfather had picked an American style restaurant which put his relatives even more on edge. Unlike the funeral though, more of them felt comfortable eating western food then going to a western service.

Their little group sat off to the side and Kaito kept his frame relaxed and his eyes steady. Saguru knew how dangerous the magician could be and Kaito wasn't afraid to show it off to him now. To anyone else, it looked like he didn't have a care in the world.

He and his mother ordered something small. His mother asked for tea and a slice of pie for his grandmother. Kaito shook his head when he was offered something and it was Saguru's turn to butt in.

"You couldn't have eaten much the last few days. Get something. If you feel badly because it's my grandfather's money, I'll pay for you. I still owe your mother for bus fair."

Kaito smiled and shrugged. "Fine, I'll have a cheeseburger and fries."

The waiter took it down and left. They'd been one of the last to order and the smell of food around him was making him hungry. He also had a headache that started sometime during the car ride and he'd been sweating for a while.

"**Saguru, are you sick?**" His mother looked him over and he nodded. They returned their discussion to English and some of the other family members were looking at them funny.

"**It's just a cold. Don't worry about it.**"

"**Okay then. I won't. Kaito, you don't look so good either.**"

They were sitting in a booth and his mother reached across the table and over to feel Kaito's head. The magician was surprised but didn't back away from her touch. "**You have a little fever. Be careful it doesn't turn into anything worse.**"

"**I know.**" Kaito grinned. "**I have my own mother. She takes good care of me. I will not get sick.**"

"**If someone would come home, I could take care of them**." His mother glared at him again and Saguru shrugged.

"**There are more important things out there than your wants. I'll be home when I go home. I've only been in Japan for a few months and I've come back for school breaks. You have nothing to complain about**."

"**But there's nothing keeping you here anymore. Your grandfather's dead now. Who's going to take care of you? You know you can't rely on your father**." His mother sent and evil glare at his father who was sitting at a table with his siblings.

"**It is fine. I have him now**." Kaito punched him lightly on the arm. "**I will not let anything happen to him.**"

"**That's good to hear**." His mother giggled and he turned away, shooting a look at the magician. "**At least I know there's someone here looking out for him**."

"**I've got Baaya too. She's not like father and she takes good care of me. Don't worry about it**." Saguru backed up when their food came. He'd ordered himself pasta salad. He really wasn't that hungry but he knew his grandfather would want him to eat something and he hadn't had much breakfast.

Kaito ate his food as fast had he has that morning. One moment the burger was there and the next it was gone. The fries disappeared at a more perceptible rate, but they were still gone faster than Saguru could have ever eaten them.

"**I thought you weren't hungry?**" He smiled at him.

"**Hey, lay off. You told me that I should eat, so I ate**." Kaito took one of the ice waters that had been placed on the table. "**Besides, I do not get to eat this very often. My mother likes the traditional stuff better.**"

"**It's good to eat some fattening food ever now and then.**" His mother was eating a chicken salad herself. "**It's good for the soul**."

"**But not for the body**."

Kaito laughed. "**There are a lot of things that are not good for the body that we do anyway. Just think of how unhealthy it is to sit in a chair all day long. Gym class is not as long as it should be**."

"**Someone as athletic as you is the only one who could say something like that. If gym were longer, we'd never learn anything.**"

"**I'd pull it off just fine**."

"**You study outside of class.**"

Kaito shrugged. "**I do not like not knowing things. I am working on another language as well, but it is hard to balance them. I do not need to speak English often enough to keep it fresh in my mind**."

"**I can tell.**"

"**Who is insulting who's grammar now?**"

Saguru leaned his head to the side, pushing his empty plate towards the end of the table**. "If you want to have at my Japanese, I'll have at your English. Fair is fair.**"

Kaito put his own plate there and his mother and grandmother were also done, so they got up. It really was a nice way to commemorate his grandfather's life. Better to go out happy when you go.

One of his uncles had the money to pay for it, that his grandfather had set aside, and Saguru added their bill in with the rest. He got a few looks but no one stopped him.

It wasn't until they were in the parking lot that the trouble started.

"So, you think you're so cool, huh? Think you say whatever you want and bring in whoever you want? Think that just 'cause you've got English blood in you, that you're better than the rest of us?"

"I don't think that." Saguru turned towards his cousin and gestured for his mother and grandmother to continue. Kaito was at his side and he knew the magician wasn't going to move.

Yamagishi was shorter than he was by at least two inches. The teen had thick hair that fell in layers and was parted off to the side. He had dark brown eyes and a mole just to the left of his right eye, on his nose. All things considered, he really wasn't that bad looking if he could lose the attitude.

"Sure you don't. Do you see me with my friends? No. I know better, but mister sophisticated thinks he can do it anyways. Think you can talk to us however you want? You think you're better than us?"

"I said I didn't." He could see that his mother hadn't moved and tried to convey to Kaito that he should do something about that. The magician looked between them and nodded, disappearing out of his view.

He could see how upset his cousin was and he didn't want to make matters worse. His uncle and his wife came out soon after and walked up to their son. He thought that would be the end of it but they didn't move to stop him.

Yamagishi smirked at him. "See? No one thinks you're special."

"I told you. I didn't think I was. Yamagishi-kun, calm down."

"Why? Scared of me?" The teen moved in closer and Saguru knew that he wouldn't win in a fight. That wasn't where his experience lay and his cousin had a body more like Kaito's than his own. He was lean and there was muscle there that was hidden under his outfit.

"We don't want a fight."

Kaito was back and Saguru glanced over his shoulder to make sure that the others were in the car. He nodded his thanks to Kaito.

"Who are you? This doesn't concern you!" Yamagishi brandished him arm in a violent way. The motion was almost quicker than Saguru's eyes could follow and he felt his heart rate speeding up. His uncle smiled and put a hand on his son's shoulder.

"My father may have liked you, you piece of trash, but that doesn't mean the rest of us do. Don't think you have the power to do whatever you like in this family."

"You have no right to tell me not to see my own grandfather." He may have been afraid but he was angry too. His uncle was a big man.

"I have the right to tell you whatever I want, and you better damn well listen to me." His uncle grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and he could hear Kaito let out something that sounded like a growl.

"Let go of him."

His uncle laughed. "Got others fighting your battles for you? What kind of man are you?"

"Let me go, uncle. I don't want this to go any further."

"Don't tell me what to do!" His uncle punched him hard in the face. The hand the was still holding him couldn't keep on doing it with the force of the impact and Saguru fell into the car he was standing next to. Kaito was at his side in a second and blocking any further violence from getting to him.

"You okay?" The magician asked without turning to face him. Saguru nodded, wiping away some blood that came for a cut on his lip.

His uncle grabbed onto Kaito next and Saguru tried to get back on his feet. His vision was unsteady and he had to rest a hand on the car he fell into in order to do it.

"Stop it, uncle!"

His uncle went to throw Kaito aside to get to him but the magician knew how to move to keep himself in place. This confused the older man who was used to using his size to get what he wanted.

"Don't take this any further." Kaito glared at the man. "Leave now."

"I'm not going anywhere." If he wasn't able to move him, he thought that hitting Kaito would have the same effect it had on Saguru. The magician saw it coming though and turned enough so that the blow didn't knock him off his feet. Saguru started to move in to help but Kaito's expression stopped him. He was grinning.

"That's assault then, don't you agree?"

"Couldn't agree with you more."

The new voice made everyone turn. Nakamori was there with two other officers and they'd seen the whole thing.

"Nakamori-keibu, what are you doing here?" Saguru held his mouth when speaking hurt. The Inspector looked at him with sad eyes.

"Kaito-kun called me. He said that you two might run into trouble and asked if I could come. I saw the whole thing." The Inspector turned to his uncle who let go of Kaito. He could see how wreathing mad his uncle was.

"This was a set up!"

"No, I only called him after the wake. The call record can prove it." Kaito took out his phone and showed his own call time. "You were the one who attacked us. We didn't force you."

"You!" His uncle came towards him and Nakamori moved to grab him. "You did this!"

"He did not!" Kaito walked in front of him so Nakamori and his enraged uncle were only a foot apart. "I'm the one that called!" Kaito pointed a finger towards himself. "If you want someone to blame, blame me! But first you have to blame yourself!"

"You piece of English filth!" His uncle kept yelling, trying to get at him and ignoring Kaito all together. "You'll pay for this!"

"Do you want me to add hate crimes onto your record too?" Nakamori forced his uncle against the car and cuffed him. Yamagishi was watching on in shock as all of this happened so quickly and his mother was doing the same. Nakamori turned to them after he had his uncle mostly under control.

"I'm taking him down to the station and both boys are coming with me. If anything happens to them and I find out it was your family again, I won't be so lenient. I'm fining him but he won't get jail time. Kaito-kun asked me not to earlier so I hope you appreciate it."

Nakamori led his uncle to a police car and Yamagishi threw a murderous look his way before Kaito came over to him.

"Are you okay? I didn't want him to hit you."

"I'm fine." He put a hand up to his lip where the cut was. He could taste the blood and he'd have a bruise for a while. "What about you? I didn't know you called the Inspector."

"I wanted some sort of safely measure." Kaito grinned, his own face looked like it was going to have a descent burse too. "Being who I am doesn't always have the advantages I need. I couldn't really do anything without help."

"Saguru! Are you okay?" His mother came out of the car and was pressing a cloth to his face. "I'm so sorry I couldn't help! I didn't think your uncle would actually hit you!"

"I'm fine Mother." He looked around to Kaito who was trying to blend into the background again. "Thank you."

Kaito nodded and his mother finished up looking him over before running a hand down Kaito's face as well and stressing that they should put something on it.

"Mother, we need to go with Nakamori-keibu, or they'll let uncle go. I don't want that to happen." He put a hand up to his face. It really did hurt. Spending his next few hours getting his uncle in trouble didn't seem like a bad way to spend them though.

"I'll go with you."

Kaito sighed, looking at Saguru with crestfallen eyes. "I need to call my mother too. We're going to be late."

"So?" He looked at Kaito with confusion.

"You didn't see my mom after I cut myself. You fell asleep." Kaito pulled up his sleeve. "Just wait until I tell her I'm hurt and at the police station."


	16. Running Out

Jeez, sorry this took so long. I blame it on juggleing other stories (one of which isn't up yet) and work.  
In fact, it's three and I have to be up at eight so I'm not going to say anymore than please review. Thanks and sorry.  
It really shouldn't take me as long as it has. I'll figure something out.

Rehalled the whole story too, so I hope there aren't any mistakes anymore ^_^ Took ages

* * *

_**Chapter 16: Running Out**_

Kaito's mother was true to Kaito's expectations. She came in with a worried look on her face and rushed over to where they were sitting. She quickly took the ice pack away from her son's face and looked the magician over.

"Kaito! You really have to stop this!"

"Hey, it's not like I got hit on purpose!" Kaito took the ice pack back and returned it to his cheek. "And I didn't start it either!"

"Kaito, you always start it!"

"I did not!"

"Well…" Saguru shut up when Kaito turned on him. "You did, kind of get them mad when you didn't have to."

"That wasn't my fault. I couldn't just sit there and let them talk down to you like that."

"Words don't hurt."

"Oh yes they do." Kaito wouldn't back down and his mother turned to examine Saguru's face. He knew he'd been hit pretty hard and the cut down his lip was deep. The ice was keeping it from bleeding right now.

"Are you okay Saguru-kun?" Kaito's mother moved over to him when she saw that he was hurt worse than her son.

"I'm fine."

"Who are you?"

Saguru's mother came back from getting her drink and handed Kaito the water bottle that he'd asked for. Kaito's mother stood up and looked over his mother. The hair and eyes were a dead giveaway for who she was but Kaito and his own mother looked nothing alike.

"Kuroba Chikage. You?" Kaito's mother offered her hand.

"Hakuba Leah, though I plan on getting rid of that name one of these days." She scoffed and looked down at Saguru. "I was going to take you with me if you wanted. Go back to my maiden name."

Saguru shook his head. "I'm too accustomed to it."

His mother nodded and turned to Kaito's. "So, you know my son?"

"He's been staying with me for a few days. It seems our house was closer than his own and it saved him some trouble in the long run."

"Oi, Chikage, you're going to have to move. I can't talk to them with you in the way." Nakamori placed a hand on Kaito's mother's shoulder and she moved for him.

"Ginzo-kun, what happened? I get a phone call from you that Kaito's been involved in a fight. Now I see both boys with obvious injuries and where's the other party? I hope one of them hit back."

Kaito laughed. "Mom, you can't hit back. Then we'd get in trouble too."

"So you didn't hit them back? Was it a girl?"

Kaito wrinkled his face at her. "I wouldn't let myself get hit by a girl."

"Kami forbid the womanizer would ever pay for his dirty tricks."

Both Nakamori and Kaito's mother laughed and Kaito shrugged. The adults had been around long enough to hear of the magician sneaking into the girl's room on multiple occasions, and Nakamori had to hear of his skirt flipping from his daughter. His own mother didn't understand and looked at Kaito like he was some new, perverted creature that appeared before her. Saguru couldn't really defend him. Kaito dug his own grave.

"Anyway, I need both of your testimonies along with my own. This guy doesn't want to go down with even a fine. Are you sure you don't want to prosecute further? I could get him a few months if I tried."

Kaito shook his head and Saguru shrugged.

Nakamori sighed. "All right then. Let's get you both into a room. You two will have to stay out here."

Saguru's mother stood up. "I do not! Saguru is a minor and I have a right to be with him!"

"Don't mother." He put his only free hand on her shoulder. "Nakamori-keibu knows what he's doing. I trust him. Wait for me. This shouldn't take long."

His mother looked hurt but she sat down. Kaito's kept standing as if the idea that she could go in with him had never occurred to her before. It probably hadn't. There weren't many scenarios that Saguru could think of that would involve Kaito one-on-one with an officer that didn't involve Kid.

"We'll wait." Kaito's mother sat down next to his own. "Don't keep them Ginzo-kun."

"I won't be interviewing them. I'm a witness." He threw his head to the side. "But one of my friends is. Don't worry about it. They won't be treated badly."

Nakamori led Saguru and Kaito down a few criss-crossing sections in the back of the police station. They met with two officers at the end who split them up. Saguru went with an older one with gray hair and dark eyes that had seen too much, while Kaito went off with a younger officer. Nakamori stayed back and waited for his own statement to be taken.

Saguru and the officer went into a room where he sat in a rather comfortable chair that was green and swiveled. The officer sat in a black one.

"So, tell me exactly what happened from the moment you met with your uncle until the point where the officers came in."

Saguru did, reliving some things that he would prefer not to. He was forced to leave some of his families comments in, so that Kaito's actions at the funeral parlor were justifiable. Other things like Tobias he was able to leave out.

The man jotted down everything he said. Thanks to Saguru's time fixation, he was able to give an approximation of when everything took place. His details started getting sketchy towards the end as his headache got worse and he started coughing. The bruise made it painful to do so.

"Thank you for your cooperation. You can go now." The officer waved him off without any emotion to what he thought of the situation. Saguru liked it that way because he wasn't in the mood or any more hate or condolences either way. Getting back to the waiting room was simple and he let his eye glaze over with the recoiled energy loss that day had thrown at him.

"Saguru, are you all right?" His mother stood up and he could see that Kaito was already back in his chair. The funny thing was that the magician had somehow managed to fall asleep again. Kaito's mother smiled at him.

He would never again doubt the magician's ability to fall unconscious. They were in a police station. Some logical part of him was calling Kaito an idiot for being so at ease here.

"I'm fine." He tried to stop the coughs but his head was swimming. It was only around six in the afternoon. He took the antidote at one. He shouldn't be feeling so sick yet.

"Sit down." His mother led him to a seat and he smiled tiredly at her. He was perfectly capable of doing it on his own, but she wanted to help and he was too out of it to stop her. "Do you need anything? What hurts?"

"It's fine. I have a cold. It'll clear up soon." He'd taken the ice pack away when he'd been being interviewed and was starting to feel the pain from the bruise now, but he didn't want to hold it up anymore or care to find where it had gotten to.

The seats in the waiting room they were in were nailed to the wall and uncomfortable. He was tired still. It was crazy. He'd gotten enough rest to last him a week already, so he shouldn't be feeling that drained. He could blame it on the cold but it felt like more than that.

"Are you sure you're okay? Do you want something? I can-"

"Mother, please." Saguru held up a hand to try and settle her down. "I'm fine. I don't need anything."

"Okay." She sat back in her chair in defeat. He wanted to leave things like that and rest for a while, but his conscience wouldn't stop bothering him. He lifted his head and looked at her with shadowed eyes before hugging her from the side. "I'm sorry Mother. I'm tired. Thank you for all your help."

He kissed her on the cheek before quickly taking his coat sleeve and wiping away the smear of blood on her face that he left behind. His mother started crying after that so he let her go.

"What help was I? Saguru, please come home." She wrapped her arms tightly around his chest. He was taller than her so it was impossible for her to grab any higher. "There are people who love you there. Don't stay here. I'll only worry about you."

"Please Mother," he smoothed the back of her hair down. "I've already told you I can't."

"No you haven't. I don't understand what's keeping you here. I know you didn't love it back home but it has to be better than this."

"First of all mother, you know how difficult it was back home for me to find any work. I'd get a job a month at the most. With my father's influence here I at least have a chance of making a difference. Secondly, I'm in the middle of a big case right now and couldn't leave it even if I wished to. I'll be fine. I've been fine for months now even without Father's supervision and I will continue to be fine in the days to come. There's no need for you to worry so much."

"I can't help worrying Saguru. I'm your mother." She sighed and turned away from him. "I've been trying not to be over-protective of you. I've let you do as you wished for fear of me becoming my own mother, whom I hated until I had you. We'd fight constantly when I was younger because she never let me experience life. I can understand why you're getting mad at me but know it's only because I love you. I'll let you stay but please come home and spend some time with us that's not a week off of school."

He sighed as well, giving in and smiling. "It's rather hard to live in two places but I'll try."

"And no more fighting."

"I try my utmost to avoid confrontation of the physical sort." Saguru raised a hand and smiled at the childish oath. Leaning back in his chair, he tried to follow Kaito's example and let his body have the rest it wanted. It was an impossible feat, as the chairs made him feel as if he were laying against a rock.

He felt so very tired. Though Saguru couldn't understand why, even the plastic lump of a seat couldn't keep him awake. He gave up what little dignity he had and got off his chair to sit on the floor and lean against the wall, out of the way of anyone walking through the hallway. His head rested on one of the seats and this time he found sleep easily.

Kaito was the one who woke him.

"Hey." Saguru felt the magician push him, making his head hit the side of the chair at a bad angle. Saguru opened his eyes with a scowl and rubbed the side of his head.

"What do you want?"

"Where's my mom?"

Saguru finished opening his eyes, seeing how dead the police station was. Both of the chairs that their parents had been in were vacant.

"I don't know. How long have I been out?"

"Beats me." Kaito stood up and stretched. "I only just woke up myself. It's pretty dark out."

Saguru took out his watch. Before opening it he ran his thumb across the gold cover, feeling the smoothness of the empty design. It was simply gold with nothing to adorn it. He always enjoyed that. It was like a blank canvass, reflecting the world around it. He sighed before pushing the latch and opening it.

Three twenty seven and fifty eight seconds.

Uh oh.

"Where our parents are at matters very little at this moment. I'm sure sleeping slowed my blood pressure down, but it couldn't have been by that drastic an amount."

"What are you talking about?" Kaito looked down at him.

"Kuroba-kun, it's been over thirteen hours. Ai-san only promised twelve."

Kaito's eyes widened as the magician realized what he was getting at. Saguru knew that he'd been feeling something strange since he woke up. It was the cold and the pill wearing off. His chest felt tight but nothing was hurting him just yet.

"Damn, I wish Mom had a phone." Kaito took out his cell and looked helplessly through the numbers. "Jii-chan doesn't have a car, so that won't help either."

"Who?"

Kaito ignored him as he continued to look at his phone as if it would give the magician the solution to their problem. Saguru's problem. He paused a minute to think on that. He'd automatically associated Kaito with himself. Though the magician was helping him, he couldn't see Kaito being hurt by not participating, which should have meant that it _wasn't_ the magician's problem.

"My mother has a phone and the chances are that they are together if you were looking to contact them."

"Yeah but we can't take your mother too, unless you want her to know."

Saguru shook his head. There was no way he wanted his mother to know what had happened to him. It was a guarantee that he wouldn't be in Japan any longer.

"I don't have a car and it's not like you can hide here. Especially not _here._" Kaito looked around, searching for some type of answer. An idea must have come to him because Saguru saw the magician's eyes widen and settle on whatever it was that he had decided.

"Give me your phone." Kaito held out his hand to him and Saguru dug into his coat pocket to find his cell. He relinquished it without the reluctance he was normally accustomed to when handing _anything_ over to the magician. Even giving Kaito a pice of string could be potentially dangerous.

"Hello?"

Saguru looked up in surprise. He hadn't even heard Kaito dialing or going through his numbers.

"Yes, we're awake. Can I speak with my mom real quick?"

His eyes widened. Kaito _had_ called his mother. Saguru hoped there was good reason for it or the magician would bet getting it from him.

"Hi, mom? I need to borrow the car so can you get a ride home from her? Make up some excuse as to why we're gone." Kaito waited for his mother to speak before nodding. "I know. I'll see you then." The magician hung up the phone and threw it back to him. "Come on, we're taking the car."

"The one you're mother brought us in? Who's going to drive it?" He got unsteadily to his feet, feeling how much he was sweating. The police station felt as hot as a black top in the middle of summer.

"I am. You can complain about it later when the whole world isn't about to see you mysterious shirk in front of them." Kaito pulled on his sleeve when he got up and practically dragged him down the aisle they were in.

"Kuroba-kun, I don't know how I feel about you driving."

Kaito looked back at him as winked as he pulled open one of the doors that divided the interior of the police station. "Don't worry. I have more than enough experience with cars." The way the magician stressed the word _cars_ made Saguru wonder what else he could drive that he _didn't_ have much experience with. Whatever the case, the statement was not reassuring.

Passing up the last seat on the walkway, Saguru suddenly felt as if someone had stabbed him in the chest. If Kaito hadn't been holding his arm still, he surly would have fallen. He twisted around his sleeve so that he could grab onto the magician's wrist as an extra precaution.

"Ow Hakuba-kun, loosen up."

"Sorry," he gasped, getting his breath back as the pain resided only to have it come back in full swing. He heard Kaito say _ow_ again as he closed his eyes, feeling the magician dragging him along. _Not here you idiot,_ he also heard.

His run through the parking lot was blurred as Kaito dragged them between rows of cars. The Saturn's door was opened and he tried his best to get inside, collapsing on the seat and holding his chest. It was almost as if he were being poisoned again but this time he wasn't able to fall unconscious.

Kaito left the front door open and the light shown down as he seemed to be playing with the ignition.

_He doesn't have the keys,_ Saguru found himself thinking, hardly able to see the magician's movements. Hearing the engine start brought fears of being alone in a vehicle with a teenage daredevil driver. Though Kaito was reliable in most situations, Saguru wasn't too sure that calmly driving down the street was one of them.

A spasm ran through his body and Saguru couldn't help screaming. He could almost feel his cells destroying themselves in order to regenerate his younger body. It was a torturous experience and he didn't want to ever do it again until they'd found a permanent cure.

Panting a few minutes later and wearing clothes that were, again, too big for him, Saguru sat up and looked desolately in the mirror at Kaito's inquiring eyes. The magician had taken the car down the road at this time and seemed to not be living up to his expectations. For Kaito, that was almost always a good thing.

"I'm back to being a child. Lovely."

"Isn't it?" Kaito shrugged. "I wouldn't mind being a kid again. Imagine all the things that I could get away with." The grin across his face had Saguru imagining it and he didn't like what he saw.

"It's all well and fun for you, but I enjoy being older. You, on the other hand, are someone who enjoys not being taken seriously. I'd like to see you feel differently when you can no longer reach the top of your dresser, or the inside of your fridge, or the like. It's not a pleasurable experience."

"I could find a way to reach anything, no matter how tall I am." Kaito's confidant words were overshadowed by a moment of doubt. "Well, almost anything. I know it can't be much fun being a kid. I told you I'm working on it. You were the one that dragged me away from Ai-kun to come help you."

"I most certainly did not." Saguru looked indignantly at the magician once again. "You came of your own accord."

"I didn't mean it."

Saguru looked over to see Kaito wince.

"What's the matter?"

"Nothing." The magician continued driving. The smile absent on his face for once gave away more than Kaito would think.

"It doesn't seem like nothing."

"Old wounds. Nothing more."

_Old wounds? What did that mean?_ Saguru, acting like the child he appeared to be, crawled over the space in-between the two front seats, un-seating Kaito's grip on the left side of the wheel and causing the car to swerve dangerously into the other lane. Luckily for the both of them there were no oncoming vehicles at the moment.

"Stop that! You could have killed us!" Kaito shook Saguru off the rest of the way and he fell clumsily head over heals into the seat, accidentally hitting a bare foot against the dashboard.

"I didn't intend to do that." Saguru straightened himself out. "It's rather hard to maneuver when you're going ten over the speed limit."

He watched as Kaito looked down, raising his eyebrows when he faced the road again.

"Oops."

"And _I_ am the one who's going to get us killed," He shook his head. "You claimed to be good at this."

"So sue me, I wasn't paying that much attention to my speed. We wouldn't have died."

"No," Saguru agreed. He didn't doubt that Kaito's rash luck would get them out of anything deadly. "But it eventually would have gotten us pulled over. I would love to see you explain yourself then."

Kaito drew a hand into his coat pocket and pulled out a drivers license that claimed he was two years old then he really was.

"I've got my bases covered."

Saguru sighed. "I'm not even going to wonder where you acquired a fake drivers license."

"Good." Kaito grinned at him mischievously. "Because you'd never find out."

"Now what was that comment on old wounds about?" Saguru watched as Kaito took one hand off the wheel as if to grab something and instead brushed it through his naturally spiked up hair before reclaiming the wheel.

"Nothing. Didn't you hear me before or has the great detective loss his sense of understanding basic words?"

"Insult me as you will but I'm not letting this go."

Saguru sat and crossed his arms, debating whether or not to uncross them so that he could fasten the seat belt first. He stayed strong in his determination.

The rest of the ride, all twenty minutes of it, was completed in silence. Kaito pulled in front of his house with a deep sigh before looking down at him.

"I hurt myself a few weeks ago. It's nothing serious. Your uncle nicked it and it's been kind of bothering me since then. Happy now?"

"Why kind of injury to you carry around for _weeks?_"

Unlike most people, Kaito didn't weaken or put up defenses under his gaze. The magician took everything and focused it into a neutral light. It was one of his guards that Saguru was coming to take notice of. If you don't feel strongly about something, then you can't give your opinion on it. You then don't make rash decisions on those opinions.

"It's just a bruise."

Kaito opened the door and walked out without saying anything further. Saguru pushed his own door open to follow the magician, angry when he had to hold onto the car for support and angry when his shorter legs took longer to catch up.

"If it's just a bruise, then let me see it." Saguru wasn't giving up. He never did. The magician had more secrets about him then army base. It only made his detective instincts burn for the answers.

Kaito shot him an angry look after Saguru persisted to follow him all over the house, being thrown off only once when the magician had used the washroom. During that time Saguru had attacked his new clothes to replaced his currently too-large shirt with a descent outfit.

"Here, okay?" Kaito took a moment to take off his white coat that had miraculously gone unstained throughout the day and unbuttoned the equally clean white shirt. "It's just a bruise." The magician quickly buttoned the shirt back up.

It was more than _just a bruise._ Half of Kaito's chest, the left side, was a dark splotchy color where he's clearly collided with something unforgiving. It stood out harshly against his skin that wasn't touched by the sun. By the looks of it, the magician had a few bruised ribs.

"How did that happen?" Saguru wasn't going to stop after being snapped at. If anything, he was more intrigued. Give a dog a bone and he's left watching you, expecting a steak.

"And here I thought it wouldn't take a genius to figure that out. I fell obviously."

"Into what?" Saguru asked with raise eyebrows. "A wall?"

The way Kaito twitched made Saguru's face relax into worry. "You fell into a wall?" He asked in disbelief.

"Not on purpose." Kaito crossed the room in a few hurried steps to sit on the couch and wait for his mother's to return. Now that he was looking for it, Saguru could see how delicate all the magician's actions were.

"When?"

Kaito closed his eyes and let his head fall backwards. It was obvious the magician was exhausted. Saguru knew it was the only reason he was getting answers from him at that moment. Being deprived of sleep shut down some of the most basic functions of the brain. It was for Saguru's profit that the magician had bereaved himself in such away but he wasn't above letting this opportunity fall through his fingers.

"I don't know," Kaito mumbled honestly. "I don't keep track of days like you do. Maybe two in a half weeks ago. Maybe a little more." Kaito's head tilted to the side and he knew the magician was asleep. The nap at the police station couldn't have helped much anyway. One of these days he'd have to get Kaito to sleep laying down.

Now for some calculations. Three weeks ago. Saguru hadn't thought much on what had happened since he'd been shrunk. That would put the time that that Kaito had been hurt somewhere a week or so before that.

Memories flooded back slowly. There had been a heist. It was why Saguru was staying at that hotel in the first place. He only remained there because a murder case had come up the day after. It had been one of his harder cases. The details were sketchy and he had had no suspects. He hoped the murder hadn't gone unsolved after his sudden disappearance.

But what had happened at the heist? Had Kid, Kaito, been hurt? He didn't remember anything like that.

Kid had come and gone in a cloud of smoke like he had often done. There had been some type of colored diamond that had been stolen. It was returned the next day. He'd gotten news from the local police. After stealing the gem, Saguru remembered seeing the thief flying off. The glider did disappear faster then Saguru thought that Kid could have traveled out of sight, but it had been something that was shrugged off as unimportant.

Maybe the glider hadn't disappeared. Maybe Kid had fallen.

Saguru narrowed his eyes at the slumbering thief. There were so many questions that he wanted answers to that he knew he would never have. He was lucky to get what information he already possessed. Some large piece of the puzzle was missing and Saguru felt his fingers itch for something that would fit and complete the picture.

It wasn't more than five minutes later, after Saguru had changed into one of the two pairs of pajamas that he had bought, when someone started knocking at the door.

Saguru turned meekly in the magician's direction, not wanting to have to wake Kaito up but knowing he was too short to reach the upper lock.

The magician solved his problem for him and blinked his eyes open before sitting up with a short breath that sounded like it wanted to be a yawn.

"What's going on?"

"Someone's here. I can't let them in for obvious reasons." Saguru sat on the couch himself and let his body relax. He'd had a long day too. There was too much emotion and pain to sort through at that moment and he dearly wanted rest. "Let them in."

Kaito gave him a confused look. "That's weird." He used the palm of his head to wipe away sleep from his eye. "The door's not locked. Even if it was, Mom has a key."

Saguru let his own eyes slot open as well, turning to face the main hallway that the door was in. "That is weird."

"Kaito." They could hear the magician's mother's mumbled voice through the knocking. "Hurry up, we're getting tired of waiting out here."

"Uh oh." Kaito's eyes widened further and he looked down at him. Saguru raise his eyebrows with tired anger.

"What?"

"_We_" The magician said, getting up and peeking out the window.

_Uh oh _was a very appropriate word indeed.


	17. Revelation

Okay, I'm updating, Yay. This chapter did a total 180 on me and, instead of being funny,  
came out serious. Sorry.

and I GAVE SAGURU HIS MIDDLE NAME! It is something I made up, so don't take it as  
actual information. (Since he's half English, and yet it's not obvious by his name, I thought  
it would be nice to give him a middle name and make it English ^_^)

* * *

_**Chapter 17: Revelation**_

"Coming mom!" Kaito looked to Saguru for what actions he should take. Saguru didn't know what the best course should be. It was his mother and she'd be suspicious if he weren't there when he should have been. According to Kaito's story, he was staying at their house.

Saguru ducked behind the couch, pushed close enough to a large set of windows with long cloth drapes that he could safely hide behind. He wasn't good a lying but Kaito was, so he'd leave that part up to the magician.

The latch on the door was clicked open twice. Once for Kaito locking it and again as he unlocked it.

"Thank you Kaito." The magician's mother came in, sliding off her shoes as the night chill blew in through the open door. "It was nice of Ginzo-kun to drive the both of you home. I'm sorry we left but we weren't expecting you to wake up while we grabbed something to eat."

"It's fine mom. I'm surprised you found a place open this late."

"I know. To think I'd be out until four in the morning." The woman let out a playful sigh before smiling at her son. "And of course you have school tomorrow."

Saguru couldn't see what happened but by the way his own mother laughed as she slipped off her shoes as well, Kaito's expression must not have been too welcoming on the subject.

"In lieu of what happened, I think it would be better if I called you out tomorrow."

"Thanks."

Saguru didn't like not being able to see from his dark and somewhat dusty vantage point. The dust bunnies flying around him threatened to reveal his location but he held the urge to sneeze, clamping a hand over his nose when it became too great. Breathing in his mouth wasn't any more promising, as he would cough instead of sneeze and still give himself away. So he sat there, huddle in the neglected crawl space while his adversary for almost a year was about to lie to his mother for him. Where the magician was involved, things Saguru never thought possible had a way of coming to be.

"You don't look so well. Make sure you get some rest. I'm sure that low-life of an ex-husband of mine should have been watching out, what with proclaiming himself as a police officer that he is."

"Since I'm not going to school, I'll get some sleep. Don't worry, this is nothing."

Saguru felt some part of his heart betray him and feel pity for Kaito. This was nothing. Even not being able to see their faces, he knew Kaito was telling the truth. If being assaulted by a man you've never met before and consequently being held up at a funeral and police station all day was nothing, he had to wonder what 'something' would qualify as being noteworthy to Kaito. Thinking back, apparently falling hundreds of feet out of the air into a building was under the 'nothing' category.

"Where's Saguru? Don't tell me he went to sleep already?" His mother paused and he became aware of the fact that he was holding his breath. He released it slowly. "To see him fall asleep, and at a public place, that was... new. I want to make sure he's okay."

"He's not here." Saguru could picture Kaito smiling so that his words couldn't be misinterpreted. "He's been working on a case with another detective and decided to stay there for the night. Nakamori-ojisan dropped him off. I'm not friends with Kudo-kun, but I'm sure if you called Hakuba-kun he could tell you where it is. I've never been there before and was dropped off first."

A decent lie, though not as good of one as Saguru had been expecting. Kaito had only just woken up so he must not have had time to think, reverting to a partial truth as Saguru often did when pressed for information he couldn't give.

"I thought he was staying here?"

"He usually does," Kaito's mother cut in. "I'm sorry, I didn't know that he and Kudo-kun had plans."

Using a name she'd never heard before would make things difficult if Kaito wasn't the one to explain them. Saguru didn't want to be caught in any more lies than he was already entangled in.

"You wouldn't believe Kudo-kun. Hakuba-kun's got his work cut out for him with that guy, but don't worry. Kudo-kun's a good guy. I've seen him around a few times so I know Hakuba-kun's going to be fine."

Saguru could feel himself mentally flinch. Kaito sounded more like a mother, or a protective older brother. It wasn't the way to assure his English bread mom who believed that children so act appropriately and be where they said they were going to be. The way Kaito's words sounded, it made Shinichi appear unstable and Saguru crazy for being a part of it.

"I'll call him then," he heard her reply in a wavering tone. Saguru's eyes widened.

He frantically reached in the pockets of his pajama pants. He'd left his phone on while they were at the restaurant, since he was able to use it, and hadn't thought to turn it off afterwards. He flipped it opened, trying to hide the light, before remembering that his cell made an electronic whirring noise when it was turned off. He held it in a steadily tense hand, debating whether or not to turn it off and deal with the noise, to try and get to his settings to put it on vibrate, whatever beeping ensuing from that. He shut the phone with a snap. It was pointless. He wouldn't be able to do it in time.

"Maybe you shouldn't call now. He's probably sleeping and I don't know if he turned his phone off or not."

Saguru smiled as Kaito must have noticed his plight. It was no use though. Saguru knew his mother well.

"Well if I wake him up, it will just teach him not to leave without saying goodbye to me. My mother's probably been worried sick at the hotel we booked so it will teach him a lesson." He could hear her hitting the keys, each beep making him more and more tranquil. He wasn't sure why. His mother was about to find out what had happened to him. Saguru wasn't one for keeping secrets, as they went against his very nature. So, as he thought in the few seconds he had left, he realized he enjoyed the fact that they were about to fall away, whatever the consequences.

Jean Sibelius's "Skogsrået", or as most people knew it, "The Wood Nymph", played happily in his hand as the violins and trumpets met in the opening sequence. Though it was muted to the rest of the room, there was no mistaking where it was coming from.

Saguru got to his feet and went along the other side of the couch so that he didn't have to crawl in front of them to get out. He brushed his hair back into place and allowed himself the sneeze he'd been holding in for too long as he exited the curtains. He flipped the phone open and ended the call before the classical music turned haunting in the silence he was sure would follow.

It was definitely silent, but not the type he was expecting.

Saguru shoved his hands, with the phone, into his pocket in some vain attempt to make himself seems smaller, or more protected. Not that the thin material now lying over his hands would do anything. He stayed a few feet away from where the group was gathered. His eyes didn't go to his mother right away, as the magician caught his attention. Kaito's expression was regretful. Saguru gave him a quick sideways smile to show he was okay with it. The magician had been tired, not thinking straight. Kaito had saved him today from his uncle and from the hands of the people who wanted to kill him over a week ago. Kaito had nothing to be sorry for.

His eyes moved up to his mother's after that, expecting to see confusion. If it was there, she hid it well, or he'd missed it before he was given the chance to observe her. All he saw was wild anger in her eyes. She took a few quick steps over to him before latching onto his arm and pressing her face close to his. Saguru flinched, but only because of the sudden movement. He blinked at her with a steady expression and she blinked back. His mother than turned to the other two in the room who hadn't moved. Then her gaze went back to him.

"What in the world is going on?"

Since she looked over her shoulder at the Kurobas when she spoke this, Saguru couldn't tell if she was asking him to explain or not. She suddenly turned back and yanked him up off the ground to set him on the couch and crouched in front of her like a hungry lion wagging its tail before it went in for the pounce.

His mother took his face in her hand and he couldn't help drawing back slightly when her thumb brushed up against the left side of his face. Her eyes grew angrier when she saw this.

"Saguru?"

"Yes mother," he said quietly.

Her hand shook where it held him and she opened her mouth several times to say something. It only took her a few moments for her speech to start working again.

"What is-? What's going on? How is this-? Why-?" she gestured at him in fervor, using her free left hand. Kaito said nothing to her questioning gaze, face blank. Saguru had only seen the magician look emotionless when he wasn't sure which emotion would fit the situation, knowing that anything authentic would make it worse. Kaito's mother had put up the same walls her son had, all in the seconds it took for his own mother to face them. Unlike her son, Kaito's mother let some comfort show through.

His mother picked up on it, focusing on the woman. "What happened?"

"Why aren't you asking me?" Saguru took his hand and placed it on her wrist where she was still holding him. It made it a little more than halfway around.

"Why should-? _Who_ are you?"

"Mother, it's me. I told you."

Her hand shook once more, fear and anger where he was only used to seeing annoyance and care.

"What's your full name?"

Saguru let himself smile, though it soon fell away when it seemed his mother was reacting badly to it. He couldn't blame her. Smiles could be used in the worst ways. They could be used when someone tells you they love you and when someone tells you they just killed somebody. Saguru had seen too many smiles, and not all of them Kaito's, that were used the wrong way.

"Saguru Liam Hakuba." He spoke his name the English way. "Your name is Leah Evie Hakuba, or Hadley if you want your maiden name, as you said you wanted to change it back."

"That's impossible." Her matching eyes stared back in to his, denying her the ability to fight against the truth. Her finger brushed purposely against the cut on his lip that had already dried and her eyes settled down their frantic searching into acceptance.

"Saguru, how did this happen?"

"I was in the wrong place as the wrong time. I-" He bit back on his words, about to say he had been nearly killed. "I came across something that had this effect on my body. As of yet, I've not been able to stay myself for more than a few hours. Kuroba-kun's helping me and I'm working with someone very knowledgeable on the subject. I'm taking care of it." He said the last words with more emphasis.

"Saguru," His mother squinted her eyes. "This is impossible. I must be hallucinating. Something-"

"If it makes you feel better then think that. Go back home to grandmother. I'll call you when this is all over to let you know I'm safe."

"No." His mother moved her hand from brushing against his face to holding securely onto both of his arms. "I still don't understand. You didn't explain anything."

"Because I can't." Saguru closed his eyes. Now that the stress of her finding out his secret was gone, his body wanted him to go to sleep, even though he still needed to talk with her.

"Why can't you tell me?"

"Because," he broke quickly under the fatigue. "It will put you in danger."

"Why?"

He opened one eye to stare lazily at her. His mother's face was pale, fear and anger still lingering even after they left her voice. Her nearly three foot blond hair had fallen on either side of her face and he could feel it brushing against his pants. She looked distraught but he didn't have the frame of mind to calm her.

Saguru glanced up at Kaito for assistance and found a similar look of weariness. Kaito had slept even less than Saguru had assumed a normal person could get away with and still function. His mother caught him looking the magician's way and stood up, mistakenly assuming that he was the reason that he couldn't tell her.

His brain didn't tie all this information together before his mother grabbed Kaito by the shirt. Several things happened at once after that. Saguru jumped off the sofa to stop his mother, Kaito's mother moved closer to her son and placed a hand on Saguru's mother's shoulder when she showed such aggression, and Kaito...

Kaito smiled and put his hands in the air with all the innocence of a serpent.

"What is going on?" She demanded of the magician. Kaito stood there with the edged smirk on his face.

"Didn't you hear your son? I can't tell you."

The smile wasn't edged. Saguru only realized at that moment that Kaito was so beyond exhausted that he was having trouble putting up the masks he normally wore. Saguru's hand clutched the front of his mother's shirt and he tried to pull her away.

"I'm sorry I can't tell you Mother. Please, let him go. You know Kuroba-kun's only been trying to help."

"Then why won't anyone tell me anything?" She swatted a hand down at him to get him to release her as if he really were a child again. Saguru hadn't been expecting it and she hit him with a good amount of force in the face. He let her go and hissed as he felt the cut open again.

"Hakuba-kun?" Kaito's voice immediately followed the action. He couldn't see his mother turn to stare down at him, releasing the magician when she saw a smear of blood on her hand. She bent over him, threading a hand through his hair.

"Saguru, I'm so sorry! Are you all right?"

"I'm fine." He had his mother's attention now and he wasn't going to waste it. He wiped the blood off his hand before grabbing on to her sleeve to keep her in place. "Kuroba-kun didn't do anything but help me. Please refrain from yelling at the people who are on my side. This is _my_ problem and _I_ am handling it." He could feel the blood drip under his chin and quickly make its way down his neck and into collar. It couldn't have been the most reassuring sight but it was better than having her lose her focus on him and start off on Kaito and his mother again.

"It's dangerous for you to tell me why but complete strangers can know?" There were tears in his mother's eyes. Shinichi had told him before that his own parents had found out, but Saguru knew how different their situations were. Shinichi had to have really accepting folks to allow him to continue his suicidal ventures.

"They're not strangers and neither of them is new to this type of situation. I can trust them because they won't put themselves in harm's way. You're my mother." He smiled at her. "I wouldn't put it past you to. Please, you have to understand that there are some things I need to do without you. I never thought something like this would be one of them, but you have to accept that."

She was clearly hurt by his attitude towards her involvement, but his first priority was to keep any unnecessary people _beyond_ arm's length on this matter. These people were killers and, though both sides of his family held influence, they didn't have the capabilities to take on something of this magnitude if he _wasn't_ all right when this was over.

His mother surprised him yet again, dropping her attitude and smiling, tears staying behind her eyes. "You know, you always were so cute when you were little." She caressed a hand through his too white hair, letting it trail down the side of his face as her colder fingers sent shivers through his body. She took her thumb and wiped away the blood on his chin.

"So you're going to forget about this?" he asked quietly.

"Of course I'm not." She let some of the steel back in as she stood but only to show her resolve. "I'll be calling you ever day to check up on you and you'd better answer the phone. I swear I'll come back to Japan the instant I don't get a reply."

"Maybe not the instant." Saguru said, taken aback. She was going to go back to London, even with how much she showed this was bothering her? "I may be busy. Give me at least a few hours to get in touch with you."

"Fine." She crossed her arms. "But know I'll be worrying about you until you do."

They stood together as he waited for his mother to say something more. She didn't look like she wanted to leave yet.

"Are you really going home?" Saguru had to ask. If she was lying to him, he'd know.

"Yes. If I say here, I'll either get in your way or I'll do something you wouldn't want me to do. You said it yourself, you're my son. I'd do anything to protect you. Being back home will make me worry, but I won't feel as if I need to do something immediately. Please call me if there _is_ anything you need."

Saguru nodded in understanding. "I will."

"And I'm sorry about-" His mother turned back, to be faced with Kaito's mother instead of the magician. Kaito's mother smiled at his own before staring down at the floor.

Kaito had leaned against the wall and seemed to have fallen asleep.

"He was tired. I'm sure he knows you didn't mean anything by it. I'd be angry too." Kaito's mother held out her hand. "Don't worry about it."

Saguru's mother smiled before shaking her offered hand. "If it's not too much trouble, can I spend the night? I told my mother there was a chance I wouldn't make it back to the apartment tonight and I'm- tired."

"We don't have much room but feel free to stay."

"Thank you. I don't mind sleeping on the floor." His mother suddenly picked Saguru up and held him close to her. "But I want to sleep with my son."

"Saguru-kun's been sleeping on Kaito's room but-" Kaito's mother smiled. "That will be fine. Let me get some sheets for you out of the closet. Saguru-kun, see if you can wake Kaito up and tell him to sleep in his bed. It's not good for him to keep sleeping like that."

Saguru felt the normalcy he'd become accustom to start to return, and his wound up mind and body started to relax. "You're only asking me because Kuroba-kun is hard to get up."

Kaito's mother peeked around the corner with a grin. "Of course."

Saguru grinned at his own mother as he moved over to the magician. Most of the time, Saguru had assumed that, even with how much he refuted the accusation, the thief would be easy to wake. It seemed true enough the first day, but when Kaito was beyond tired his dominate instincts took back seat to necessity. Kaito could sleep though a 7.0 earthquake with how tired he was now, so it would take some inventive means to wake him.

Saguru glanced at his mother before leaning into Kaito's ear. "Hey Kid, you don't want to get arrested do you?"

The magician fidgeted but didn't wake. Saguru smirked. Unconscious actions could be used against Kaito if he wanted to reveal his secrets. Sadly, Saguru was becoming less interested in that as he discovered more about the magician's life behind the scenes. Bonding with him in ways that school, or even a normal friendship could never have achieved.

"Kid, you heard me didn't you?"

Another twitch. Saguru had to think bigger. An idea came to him but he quickly threw it away. He wanted to get the magician up, not scare the hell out of him so that he wasn't able to fall back to sleep after. He thought about it some more.

"Hey," Saguru's mother bent down next to him. "Does Kaito-kun have a girlfriend?"

"Maybe." Saguru raised his eyes and placed a hand under his chin. "Aoko-kun and he are close but they aren't going out."

"That will do." His mother shifted from a crouch to kneel in front of Kaito. "Kaito-kun." His mother shook Kaito's shoulders gently. "Aoko-chan's here and I'm sure you don't want her to see you sleeping on the floor."

Kaito moved slightly. Saguru was surprised that Aoko's name got through to him and Kid's didn't. The magician blinked, staring at Saguru's mother with tired confusion. "What?"

"Go up to your room. You're mother doesn't want you sleeping on the floor."

Kaito looked around, eyes still hazy as he frowned, unable to understand what was going on.

"Here." Saguru's mother stood up and offered him her hand. "I'll help you."

Kaito looked up at her with a puzzled expression before nodding and giving her his hand.

"Saguru, you're going to have to show me where it is."

Saguru nodded, displeased that his mother didn't give him the chance to be the one to wake him. The way his mother had done it was more gentle then what he'd been contemplating, so he let the wound to his pride slide away. Saguru turned to the carpeted steps and led the way up to the magician's bedroom.

"You could at least try to keep it down."

Ai startled him and Saguru almost fell back down the stairs. After the frantic whirling his brain did at her sudden appearance, he found his words. "I wasn't loud."

Ai sighed, peering down the steps at his mother. "No, but you're just as bad as Kudo-kun. Try not to let it happened again. If anymore people find out about _them,_ they're going to have to put a bullet though ever Japanese and non-Japanese citizen, making the world pretty lonely."

"I didn't tell her anything. If something happens to me, I can trust Kuroba-kun to keep it to himself. So don't worry."

"I wasn't insinuating anything negative, but it would be best if your mother _didn't_ know. Kudo-kun's parents may be aware of what he's doing, but that's only because they are fully willing to take up arms against the organization if anything happens to him. Kudo-kun may not acknowledge it, or even have come to realize it, but both of his parents ride on strong morals and have deeply rooted contacts. He's already sentenced them to death of he dies. I wouldn't want you to do the same to your mother."

"I already came to this realization. I'm going to make sure my family is safe." Saguru rubbed his left eye tiredly as he pushed passed Ai. His mother and an out-of-it Kaito followed.

"You don't have to tell her. Even if they _think_ she knows, they'll kill her. I heard bits and pieces of your conversation. You should really let a girl sleep, seeing as the sun is about to come out. If you and your mother stay in contact, make sure no one's around to hear you. Don't leave your calls traceable. You aren't as high-risk as Kudo-kun is, but I would cover my trail anyway."

"I will. Goodnight Ai-san."

"Good night, Saguru-kun."

Saguru had already made it to, and opened, the magician's door before his eyes widened and he turned around to face where Ai had been seconds ago. The girl had retreated back to Kaito's mother's room. She'd used his first name.

It felt eerie. Ai had only proclaimed her dislike of him, though he didn't share it. He'd thought it strange when she'd started calling Kaito by his first name, when she didn't even do it with Shinichi, but now she'd done it to him. As bizarre as it felt, an undercurrent of warmth came with it.

"You're too slow." Kaito pushed past him, making Saguru hug the doorframe so that the magician's drunken movements wouldn't slam him into the wall. Kaito made a beeline for the bed and fell back to sleep on contact.

"Well, sorry for being slow." Saguru let go of the wall and turned behind him as he heard footsteps approach. Kaito's mother was there, blending in with the shadows of the late night. Her hair wasn't dark enough to blend her as well as Kaito could, but it mixed with the low light streaming from her open bedroom door.

"Here." White sheets were handed to his mother and she accepted them gratefully.

"I appreciate you letting me stay."

"It's after four in the morning. I wouldn't send you away at this time of night. Who knows what bad company you could run into."

Saguru had a mocking retort about what great company was _inside_ the house, but he kept it to himself. Something unformed about how sleeping with a thief was _so_ much better than running into one on the street.

"I'll leave in the morning." His mother assured Kaito's.

"You could stay for breakfast if you would like, or lunch by the time we get up."

His mother shook her head. "I won't intrude any longer. If I stay, it will only make leaving more difficult. Goodnight." She bowed and Kaito's mother bowed in returned.

"Goodnight. Goodnight to you as well Saguru-kun."

Saguru inclined his head to her. "You as well."

His mother closed the door. The light in the hallway was cut off, attempting to seep into the room from underneath the door. She took the sheets and laid them out on the floor before Saguru processed much with his overworked nervous system. His mother quickly wrapped him up in her arms before he could think and snuggled him beside her.

"Mother," he struggled weekly against her hold. There was an embarrassed blush across his face.

"You're not too old for this at the moment, so you're going to be sleeping with me. I'm letting you stay here. I 'm letting you keep the truth from me. The least you can do is stop thinking for once and let me do what I want while I can."

Saguru settled himself down, letting out a sigh that sounded as if it belong to his older body on a day in which he'd failed at something. He was tired, and it wasn't like he hadn't fallen asleep with Kaito's mother. That made the blush return to his face and he decided that not thinking anymore on the matter was the best course of action. With an empty mind his world was soon consumed by sleep.

...

"Oh jeez, I'm sorry!"

Saguru heard the magician's voice cut through the blackness that came after his dreams disappeared and before waking ensued. He heard his mother let out a cry before breaking into a fit of giggles.

"That's okay," Saguru heard his mother say after a startled noise. "That felt so strange."

"Sorry," Kaito apologized again. "You're not hurt are you?"

"No, I'm fine. You touched me where I'm slightly ticklish."

Okay, Saguru had to force his eyes open now. His mother and the magician sounded like they were an awkward couple out in public. He had to make sure that the more perverted nature of his classmate hadn't come out while he'd been sleeping.

Kaito looked like he'd fallen against his bed, on leg out to the side while his arm was bent and griping his sheets. His mother was mostly sitting up with a hand on her side.

"What happened?" Saguru asked, rubbing his eyes.

"I didn't know you were that close to the bed. I'm sorry." The magician may have been apologizing but he was smiling as well.

"It's fine. Being stepped on as a way of waking up was a first for me." She looked over at Saguru. "Sorry for waking you."

"Its fine." Saguru stretched, hand wandering to his pocket to see what time it was.

"Excuse me. I have to use the restroom." Kaito used the hand that was still on the bed as leverage to get up and walked out of the room. Saguru smiled. The magician had stepped on his mother in a rush to go to the toilet. The thought was entertaining.

The gold watch balanced naturally in his hand told him it was a little after eleven in the afternoon. He shut it, keeping the watch in his hand. Saguru wasn't sure if it was because he'd thought about both things upon waking, but suddenly the feelings mixed. The loss of losing his grandfather, having only the man's teachings and this golden watch to remember him by, suddenly focused with an intense need onto Kaito. His thoughts turned from, 'I knew it would feel this bad when grandfather died', to 'how would it feel if Kaito died'?

The thought sent a sharp pain into his heart. Saguru's eyes widened at the reaction. Had he really become that close to Kaito? Worse yet, why had he thought of the magician dying? He knew that the Kid had enemies that were willing to kill him, but Saguru was determined to put a stop to that. He hadn't really thought much into why it was so important to keep the magician safe, even if it was behind bars. Still, he had been prepared if he couldn't get to Kaito in time.

So the thought of Kaito's death wasn't something new, but this was the first time it hurt quite that much. No one would die on his watch. It was the Kid's code of honor and now, as the one person close enough to want to understand him, Saguru was making it his own as well. No one would get hurt, not even the thief.

It was an odd promise, and he made it only to himself when he was barely awake, but he knew he would keep to it.


	18. Wakeup Call

This chapter is a little longer than normal. Think of it as an apology for taking so long. The holidays are here too so I might get even slower for a while.

All thanks now goes to Phantom DLizz for being an great beta reader.

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**_Chapter 18: Wake-up Call_**

After Kaito's unintentional wake up call, Saguru's mother couldn't get back to sleep. The magician couldn't have had enough rest either, but he seemed energetic enough when he came back in the room and made no move to lie back down. Instead, he simply sat down on his bed and watched the two in his room. Saguru was still tired, but he didn't feel like being the only one who was passed out. Unintentional or not, Kaito's methods for waking others up didn't seem pleasant.

"So, Kaito-kun, you and Saguru go to school together?" His mother asked Kaito while Saguru sat up slightly, fighting against sleep. His mother moved him so he was sitting in between her legs and leaning against her. Iff anything it certainly helped wake him up.

"Yeah, well, we did. We're both taking a little vacation from that right now." The magician's cat-like smile didn't show any resentment to that though.

Saguru, on the other hand, missed school and the interaction with intelligent people. He also missed working with the police, which was like school but dealt with real-life situations that didn't involve mundane procedures that school required, such as how to mathematically recreate the refraction of light hitting the surface of water. While the information could be potentially helpful on a quiz show, he saw no reason why it would be required knowledge for real life.

"You can go back to class anytime you wish," Saguru mumbled, opening one eye and feeling the harsh light of the afternoon sun that filtered through the closed blinds.

Kaito stretched out on the bed, flopping back onto it when he went too far back to keep his balance. "Nah, I'm not interested in going back just yet. I've got some things I need to get in order first, one of them being you," Kaito chuckled. "I can't help thinking how bored you'd be stuck here with my mom and the chores while I was in school."

"I'll live. You, on the other hand, shouldn't underestimate where schooling can get you. Ai-san seems perfectly content assisting me, so you shouldn't sacrifice your grades when the same means can be accomplished _without _your help."

"Who needs school? And on that matter, who needs work?" Kaito got up off the bed with all the joy of a five year old that had gotten the toy they wanted. "You're mom's going home today… right?" The magician glanced over at Saguru's mother who nodded. Saguru didn't like where this was going. "Then we should all have some fun today. You made me go to the boring funeral, so now you need to go somewhere with me!" Kaito's grin could have lit up Las Vegas.

"I'm sure I wouldn't want to go anywhere in your company," Saguru closed his eyes all the way to show his displeasure at the prospect.

"Come on! You're mom's gonna come with us too… right?" Kaito looked at the woman again who nodded, enjoyment printed clearly across her face. "I'm sure Aoko-"

Kaito's words were interrupted by a loud pounding at the door that made its way up the stairs with the same volume as if he'd had his ear pressed against the door. It was enough to jar Saguru out of his half-sleep and snap to attention.

"Speak of the devil," Kaito took something out from under his bed and threw it at him. "Put this on. Aoko saw you wearing it last time, so it would be better if you didn't switch hair colors."

"Aoko-kun? How do you know that's her?" Saguru flipped the brunette wing around in his hand, not yet putting it on.

"It's either her or Nakamori-ojisan. Since I haven't done anything bad enough to want him to come over this mad, I'd have to guess Aoko has decided to grace me with her presence." The knocking at the door grew so forceful that Saguru was shocked it was still standing. "I guess Mom and Ai-kun are up. Might as well ask them if they want to come too." Kaito bounced out of the room, leaving Saguru defeated and very awake.

"Come on Saguru. It can't be that bad." His mother smiled down at him and Saguru couldn't help but think of how many shades of bad it could be. He sighed, getting up and retrieving one of his new outfits from Kaito's closet.

"I assume that I have no say in the matter, so I might as well go quietly as opposed to whatever you all can come up with," he smiled at his mother to show he meant no ill will. His mother smiled back, getting up from under the covers to lift him up into a hug from behind. Saguru could do nothing but hold on to her arms before she put him down.

"It's been so long since we've done anything together. I never really thought about it before because you were always so busy with schoolwork and your detective jobs that we never found time to do anything fun. We really need to do this more often."

The detective nodded, "Yes, we do—"

"Kaito, **what** do you think you've been doing?"

The shout made both of them jump, Saguru dropping the pale blue shirt he'd picked up off the rack. Aoko sounded angry, but whenever Kaito was around, she usually did, so it was nothing new to him. He picked the shirt back up before putting it away to look for something else, grabbing a pair of dark grey shorts that would go along with any top.

Ai entered the room without knocking as Saguru finished pulling them up. She smiled coyly, and Saguru couldn't help the blush the spread across his face.

"Sorry," Ai apologized without looking the least bit sincere. "I was wondering what was going on and thought you might know."

"Kuroba-kun has invited us all along with him for the day." Saguru closed the closet door, seeing his mother confused at the young girl's presence. "Mother, this is Ai-san. She's helping me as well. We're in the same predicament."

"Oh, I see." His mother gave Ai a look that said she'd like nothing more than to pick her up and hug her like she had just done to Saguru. Ai's smile tinged with nervousness and something vile, but neither of them did anything. "Well, thank you for helping Saguru."

And with a sweeping motion she picked her up anyway. Saguru looked away, blush returning as Ai stared in shock at being held several feet in the air by a woman she didn't know.

"Little girl or not, you are so cute that I can't help myself," his mother placed Ai back on the ground, and the scientist seemed at a loss for words or any type of emotion— aside from shock.

Kaito's mother knocked on the doorframe, snapping Ai out of it enough for the girl to wander towards the other woman and hide on the other side of the wall. "Saguru-kun, Aoko-chan may come up here at any second. I know it's an inconvenience, but please wear the wig." Kaito's mother held up a longer black-haired wig made for a woman. "If it's not too much trouble, you should wear one as well. Both of you have very blond hair and it makes you easily recognizable."

"I understand so no need to worry about it. It seems like there are a lot of reasons to be keeping this a secret that I don't understand but I know when showing myself isn't a good idea.." His mother then took the wig, looking eager to try it on. "I've never done anything like this before, and it seems fun."

"It isn't." Saguru fiddled with the brunette wing his hand, "I prefer to look like myself. It's not as if our accents wouldn't tell the world that we're foreign."

"No, but Ginzo-kun met your mother the other day and if he ends up checking on Aoko-chan during the day it's going to make him wonder how your mother has a second son he's never heard of."

Saguru sighed, "I've never had to lie so much in my life before."

"Hey," Kaito popped his head in the room, "it's not like I'm making you. Go out without it, I couldn't care less. Let's just see how far you get."

"Kaito, Aoko..."

"She's fine. She's downstairs right now. I have to get dressed first, unless you want me to go out in this." Kaito waved a hand down at the white shirt and pants he still wore from the other day and never had gotten chance to change out of.

"Of course not, now get dressed" Kaito's mother shoved him in the room and closed the door as she left. "Help them out too."

"Mom, I can't change in front of her!"

But the magician's mother was already gone. Kaito deflated, turning with an expression bordering dismay and annoyance at the two unwanted guests in his room.

"I'll look away." Saguru's mother winked at Kaito, folding her wig in her arms and turning to face the wall. Kaito's eyes narrowed before he crossed the distance to his closet and shifted through his clothing as quickly as he could.

"Don't destroy your closet just because you're embarrassed." Saguru smirked, skidding past the magician's thrown articles. He took a honey brown shirt out that matched better than the blue one, removing the one he was wearing from the other day without the same hesitancy the magician had.

"She's your mother. Of course you don't care if she sees you change."

"Of course I care. It just doesn't affect me as much when I'm this small."

"Nothing she hasn't seen before." Kaito chuckled, grabbing a shirt, black with twin white strips near the end of the short sleeves resembling a soccer jersey. He took a pair of jeans out to replace the dress pants.

"Make another bad joke like that, and you'll regret it."

"Why, what could you do? You pointed out yourself that you're too small to stand a chance against me."

Saguru leveled a glare at him that was cocky enough to set Kaito on edge. The magician had his smile back up in seconds, his look returning to one of disbelief at retribution. Saguru shrugged.

"Mom, I think Kuroba-kun wants you to check out this mole on his back."

Kaito practically fell over trying to get his shirt on. He didn't make it in time and Saguru's mother stared at the other teen with a mischievous smile mirrored by her son.

"I do _not_have a mole," Kaito spat before doing his best to ignore the eyes on him as he finished putting it over his head. Saguru laughed as the magician colored, picking the jeans off his bed where he'd temporally placed them, wondering whether to risk putting them on.

It took the detective a moment to notice when Kaito stopped looking embarrassed and turned to face him. When he glanced back, his mother was staring at him too.

"What?"

"I haven't heard you laugh in a long time." Though she was smiling, it seemed sad, and Saguru felt as he closed himself off from the world with the natural calm air he walked around with.

"Stop that."

Some form of surprise escaped Saguru's lips, but his mind was too wound up in wondering why the blood was rushing to it to distinguish what he'd said. Besides the whirling of questions he now had, most prominent of which was why he was being held upside down, he suddenly felt very nauseous.

"You know, besides those stupid little laughs of yours when you're making fun of me, I never heard you laugh before either. What's the matter with you? Are you a robot or something?"

"Kuroba-kun," Saguru swallowed. "Put me down before you see how human I am when I become sick on your carpet."

"That's disgusting, Hakuba-kun."

Saguru was glad when he was placed back on the floor, though his legs were too unsteady to keep him up so he fell back against the bed.

"I didn't ask for you to throw me around." He placed a hand up to his mouth and waited for the sickness to pass. "Give me a minute or two and I'll be fine."

"While we're waiting," Saguru's mother offered the wig to Kaito "Could you put this on for me? I don't know how it works."

Saguru saw something that looked like comb teeth before the magician took the wig with a smile. "Sure. Here, sit down."

His mother sat down as Kaito took a brush off of his dresser and began brushing her hair back. After producing hair clips out of nowhere, Kaito inserted the teeth into her natural hair until the blond was overtaken completely by the black. Saguru's matching eyes stared back at him, too bright against her new hair.

"So, Saguru, recognize me?"

"Of course I do." But the black wig did throw off her features. The contrast in eye color to her hair made her features more pronounced than they had ever been, and, if he did not know her as well as he did, he wouldn't have been able to tell that she was his mother.

"Hakuba-kun can do his own," Kaito mumbled under his breath, regaining some wrath he'd lost a few minutes ago and taking his jeans out of the room. "I'm gonna go change in the bathroom. Meet me downstairs when you're finished."

The door closed and Saguru frowned down at the wig. He'd never had to wear one before, except when the magician's mother put it on him, and this one seemed more complicated than it needed to be.

"Saguru, come here." His mother held out her arms where she was still sitting on the bed. "I saw how he did it. I'll put it on for you."

"Thank you." Saguru went over to her before being lifted up onto her lap. He hardly found the contact necessary, but the look on her face and stopped him from arguing with her. She even started humming a lullaby as she took the brush through his hair. He should have found it more embarrassing than he actually did, but his mother always sang to herself when she went about a task.

"Why don't you stay this way Saguru? I don't mind watching you grow up again."

Saguru's head lowered of its own accord before his mother lifted it back up to brush back his bangs. "Besides the many questions that would be brought up, never mind the legal work and the lies we'd need to fabricate, I don't like being young. I never knew how hard it was to perform medial tasks at such a short height. I don't think my conscience or pride could stand to let the people who did this to me accomplish what they had intended."

"Are you ever going to tell me what happened to you?" Traces of sadness laced her voice, overriding the humor.

"Maybe in the future, but I'm afraid I can't do it at the moment. There's too many secrets wrapped up in my own for my story to make sense and I can't give them away to you. Not yet at least."

"I can wait." He felt the teeth in his own wig replace the ones of the brush, catching his hair and holding it back so the false brunette would look natural.

"I despise wearing wigs," Saguru muttered. His mother started laughing at his sudden outburst and Saguru colored slightly, surprised at himself.

"It's not that bad. Now come on. Let's not keep the others waiting. We are their guests after all." His mother placed him on the floor before getting up and replacing the brush where it had been. "I may not have been with them for very long, but they seem like nice people."

"On most days," Saguru agreed. "The rest they're nothing but annoyances. Kuroba-kun seems to make it his life's goal to force me into something unpleasant ever other day."

"That's what friends are for." His mother smiled at him, opening the door and walking out as he followed behind, at a loss for words. It had come up again. Friend. The notion of him ever being friends with someone like Kaito was unthinkable, at least not in the terms that those around him were using. If anything he thought of their relationship as sparring rivals on opposing teams. When they were faced with one another, they'd try their best to take the other down, outside of a match, though, they tolerated each other. He let the mental debate go as it made little difference if it was given a word.

Aoko was at the bottom of the steps, fist raised and yelling at Kaito, who was in the other room and apparently the reason that she had backed out of it.

"You can't go skipping school whenever you want! I know you weren't feeling good but it's been a week!"

"Aoko, calm down. I told you I needed some time off. Can you blame me?" Saguru couldn't see him but the magician's words sounded bored and he could picture Kaito lounging on the couch. "Why would I want to go back when I knew that some loud girl next to me would be yelling at me no matter how many days I missed?"

"I have to be loud to get through that thick head of yours!" Aoko stomped her feet, seeing the other two hesitate before walking down the stairs. Her expression quickly changed to a mixture of remorse and surprise.

"Hello." She bowed to Saguru's mother and glanced down at him in recognition. "I'm sorry, I didn't know anyone else was here."

"Hello Aoko-san. I heard a little about you last night."

"I'm sure it wasn't anything good." Aoko glared at Kaito, who looked as innocent as a kitten entangled in a ball of yarn.

"I'm pretty sure the impression you're giving her is worse than anything I could say."

Saguru hadn't heard Ai following them down the steps until the girl brushed past him on her way to the living room. She came to a stop in front of Kaito with a serious expression on her face.

"You woke me up to bring me on a trip with these misfits for what reason? I do hope you had somewhere nice in mind."

"Actually," Kaito watched Aoko. "I wanted us all to go. I thought we'd just hit the park and then, maybe some lunch and movie."

"Good. I've had quite enough of Tropical Land."

Ai didn't acknowledge his or Kaito's confused looks.

"You skipped school for a whole week to have fun?" Aoko glared indignantly at the magician.

"I did not!" Kaito countered. "If you hadn't noticed, I had a few things come up. I'll be back at school soon."

"You'd better." Aoko unfolded her arms and stared at Saguru's mother curiously. "I don't mean to be rude, but who are you?"

"Me?" She looked over at the magician, a weak smile on her face to show she wasn't sure how she was supposed to address herself to Aoko. Kaito seemed just as unsure but he hid it.

"This is one of my friends from the states. She's here visiting for a while on business. Her son has been staying with us and she stopped over to see how things were going." Kaito's mother had already started a fabrication on Saguru's presence and expanded it in detail to include his mother.

"It's nice to meet you." Aoko bowed again. "I'm Nakamori Aoko."

His mother hesitated a moment before taking on her maidan name. "Leah Hadley. It's nice to meet you as well."

Aoko bent down to Saguru's level. "I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name the last time we met." Aoko gave him a smile that she never had before, most likely because of his new age. It was almost degrading enough to make him take up his formal speech patterns and answer her in a way he would normally. He swallowed back on the want and smiled up at her.

"Harou." He blinked a few times, trying to sound happy. It must have worked because Aoko's seemed happy.

She straightened herself back up, smile turning slightly sinister as it focused on Kaito. "So, you're making me part of this plan of yours to stay out so late tonight that you miss school tomorrow too, aren't you?"

"I don't always have ulterior motives. What makes you think so little of me?" His grin didn't help disprove her question though.

Saguru didn't think too much of Kaito's arrangements, all for Aoko breaking apart the magician's quickly formulated plan to have them entertain one another for the day. He preferred staying inside or going to the lab.

"Besides, Harou-kun's mother is only going to be here for the day. Do you really want to disappoint the kid?"

Saguru frowned when Kaito grinned in his direction. He had no reason to refuse now.

"Fine." Aoko gave up the argument too quickly and Saguru felt the hope he'd had flit away. He let out a deep breath. Ai had already gone over to the magician's mother and they seemed content to go along with the plan. The only one that seemed to not like the outing idea was him, and he wasn't one to be a bother to others.

"Come on, Harou." His mother picked him up, smiling at the new name. "Cheer up. This will be fun. I haven't had time to relax recently, and I'm sure you haven't either."

He acknowledged that, but he pushed away from his mother when she drew him too close for him to feel comfortable. When you were a child, you didn't think much of your mother. Though is body may have been small again, his mind was not.

"You're so cute when you're embarrassed." She snuggled her face into his shirt.

"Aw, how cute, someone's a mamma's boy." Kaito was next to them, somehow making it into the hallway faster than Saguru could perceive, leering gleefully at his plight. He ignored both of their taunting in favor of sulking. This only seemed to add to his tormenters' enjoyment.

Being held captive, he and the group made their way outside. Saguru was forced to mingle with both his mother and the magician's while Kaito and Aoko continued arguing in light tones behind them. Ai was too close to the ground for him to catch a good look at. The cheerful mood they were emanating was hard to miss.

"You don't want to be with your mother? You know I'm only going back because you asked me to, Saguru. I could always stay and play my role as the overbearing parent that I should be." Her gentle smile directed at him calmed his nerves. The day couldn't be that bad and most of it was over already thanks to their late night.

"It's fine mother, but could you please set me down? I don't favor being carried around when it's not a necessity."

"But I'll never get to hold you like this again."

Saguru sighed, letting further thoughts of escape float away. It was making his mother happy so he'd let her be.

It seemed the trip to the park was only a detour on the way to the theater. Saguru was thankful because, had they stayed at there, Aoko would have been expecting him and Ai to act a certain way, which neither was comfortable in doing, though they could.

A few kids skirted past their group in a game of tag. Kaito step in front of the boy who was obviously 'it' so that they girl he was chasing could get away. The little boy frowned at the magician but ran off to catch his prey before she could get far. Kaito smiled after them. Saguru couldn't help thinking that, had he been able to, he would have done the same thing. Because it was a girl. Because it was a game.

"I'm gonna get some chips. You want anything?" Kaito made the group stop when he half-stepped into a convince store. "You'll have to give me the money though. I'm a little short right now."

"I'll go in with you. Knowing you, if I let you get my stuff you'll find some way to booby-trap it, and I don't feel like having a hysterical crowd trample me at the movie." Aoko pushed by him, shoving Kaito out of the way so forcefully that he hit the case that was on the side of the door. Besides a glare and an evil smile, Kaito didn't seem to want to get her back.

"Well of course I would. That's me, Mister Evil-Intentions behind every honest question."

"Here," Aoko grabbed at bag of chocolates off the shelf. "These are for you. You are _not _going to eat chips at a theater."

"Hey! You can't tell me what I can and can't eat!"

"I sure can because you're too stupid to know what's best!"

Their argument continued down the same lines as Saguru had his mom put him down. He didn't mind her holding him but he wasn't able to look around if he didn't have access to the floor.

While they split, Saguru had to find his mother too soon so that she could buy him an iced coffee, as he couldn't reach the self it was on, being that it wasn't something children should either play with nor drink. Ai had given him a less than pleasant smile when she witnessed it in passing while she and Kaito's mother perused the shelves in the next aisle.

Kaito took out a few bills to pay for his when they met at the counter, grudgingly handing over the chocolate instead of the chips he wanted. Saguru's mother stopped him, handing over enough to cover everyones purchases, including Aoko's and Ai's.

"That's not-"

Saguru's mother stopped the magician from speaking with a wave of her hand.

"Trust me, I wish I could thank you more. If you need I could give you some money for taking care of my son too."

"No." Kaito shook his head. "It's not about money."

"Then let me pay since money isn't important to you, you shouldn't care where it comes from."

Kaito had no argument to that so he backed off, letting her have her way. Saguru was a little confused as to why the magician didn't want to accept money. His mother showed the same hesitation when he'd tried to pay her back as well before he'd gotten his bank card. It must have been something handed down to him from her since Kaito's personality wasn't one to be worried about someone's values, as he broke more than his fair share of articles in his night life, though Kaito wouldn't admit it aloud to him.

His mother handed the iced coffee down to him, letting him drink it with gravity firmly beneath his feet so he wouldn't spill. They walked out together and Saguru couldn't help noticing the overwhelming presence of girls surrounding him.

Kaito swiped his coffee, distracting him from his thoughts. The only other male within his vicinity opened the drink and sniffed it.

"What's this stuff taste like anyway? Is it any good?"

"Considering that I went to the trouble of buying it, it shouldn't be a mystery as to whether I like it or not. As for what it tastes like, it's coffee, so it tastes like coffee. "

"I know that, Genius." Kaito sniffed it again. "My dad used to drink it, but it was normal coffee, not this cold stuff."

"Please give me my coffee back. I have no wish to see what you would be like the first time you try it. I'm sure you're not going to enjoy it at any rate since you seem to like sweet things and coffee tends to be more bitter."

"Can I try it?"

It took him a moment to get his head around the fact that Kaito had just asked his permission for something. The magician usually took it upon himself to act on every whim that crossed his thoughts, taking things of his in the past and often leaving him wondering where they had gone to only to find them in the strangest of places, such as his watch mysteriously vanishing to show up taped to the underside of his chair.

"I would like it very much if you didn't, but you can. Please, just don't spit it out at me."

Kaito grinned down at him, wrinkling his nose at the smell of the beverage before swallowing some. His expression showed Saguru as much as he thought. The magician didn't like it. After a few seconds though, he seemed to get used to the taste.

"Kinda nutty, but it's not for me. Here."

Saguru took the glass bottle back, taking a sip and enjoying the flavor of it. He had been drinking coffee for years and found that he enjoyed it better in colder flavors, unlike his tea. Iced coffee and ice tea were two very different things.

"Hey, Aoko!" Kaito ran off ahead so that he was near Aoko again, shoving his hands into his pockets and looking for all the world like a normal teenager. Saguru smiled at the calming image in front of him, though Aoko seemed to still hold some anger against Kaito for missing school.

A small noise as she exhaled a breath drew Saguru's attention to Ai. The young girl scowled at Aoko before an ironic smile appeared on her face.

"I wonder if Kaito-kun will ever tell her. It's obvious that they like one another. Which one do you think is the one holding back?"

"What?" Saguru wasn't sure exactly what he was being asked. "Kuroba-kun telling Aoko-san? I doubt it. She'd hate him. What do you mean 'holding back'?"

"Nothing." The girl's neutral expression kept him from seeing her reaction. He shrugged, knowing that people were hard enough to understand, though he could get a basic grasp on their intentions. Ai seemed more complicated than most though, and there was something he liked about that.

The theater was crowded, but not overly so. They had to push their way inside and wait for at least fifteen minutes in the line, but then freedom welcomed them in the lobby where several different screening areas were already playing movies, one apparently about to start as some last minute attendees ran past them.

"So, what do you wanna see?" Kaito turned to Aoko, sparing Saguru and his mother a glance to include them. The magician's own mother seemed satisfied with whatever they decided.

"How about _Invasion from the Blue Planet_?" Aoko asked with enthusiasm. Kaito wasn't the only one to raise a questioning eyebrow at her choice.

"Why that one?" Kaito glance at the poster that had some disgusting monster with blue skin, a boar like head and razor claw that were covered in blood. Saguru was put off immediately, finding comfort in knowing that his apparent age would keep him out of that particular theater. "Gross, Aoko. Pick something else."

"No! I wanna see that one!" She stomped her foot formidably.

"And how are we all going to go in to see that on?" The magician stated the obvious to her with half-closed eyes her lack of insight. "And who would even want to, for another reason?"

"Then we can split up. Please Kaito." Her pleading eyes made the magician wince, backing up a step. Saguru knew Kaito was lost. He'd seen Aoko work her magic on him before as if Kaito were putty in her hands, and he wondered how she accomplished it.

"Fine, but we should stay together. I can sneak them in."

"Oh no you don't," Saguru was _not_ going to sit though some bloody alien movie. "I am not going to watch that."

His mother suddenly picked him up, whispering into his ear. "Come on Saguru, you can sit on my lap. It will be fun. You're so picky with movies that you probably wouldn't like anything else that was playing anyway."

"Anything is better than that." He shoved a hand in the direction of the poster, about the only limb he could move.

"They're looking after you, right? We shouldn't inconvenience them."

She knew what to say to him. Saguru couldn't be rude. It was against his very nature. His mother also had an extreme love for horror, so he wouldn't be winning any fights on this topic with her.

"We won't be able to get in." Saguru crossed his arms, certain of that fact.

Unfortunately Kaito had the damndest luck. They didn't even have to pay for him and Ai because of their age and no one questioned when both children were brought into the theater. Some of the people already seated gave them dirty looks, expecting the two apparent kids to be disruptive, but no one said anything.

Saguru sat next to his mother, the both of them on the end. He hadn't let her put him on her lap even after all her pleading. The theater had more people in it than he thought such an obviously appalling movie would have. Kaito was on his right, followed by Aoko and then the magician's mother and Ai.

When the lights went out Saguru let his body lean back against the seat, prepared for the loud noise of weapons and screams.

The movie wasn't as terrible as Saguru had predicted. The characterization and cinematography was better than most films he's seen in recent years so he was caught up in the story plot quickly. There was blood, but not the extreme amount he was prepared for.

Aoko jumped, startling Saguru from the movement rather than the jarring scene on the screen. Kaito didn't react more than twitch, and smiled down at the girl who latched herself onto him.

"You're the one who wanted to see it." Saguru couldn't hear the whispered words but they were easy enough to predict. Aoko clung tighter and shut her eyes as a particularly ghastly decapitation took place. Kaito leaned closer to her to give her some comfort.

Saguru realized why she had chosen the movie and why she was insistent on seeing it. He smiled, seeing the two together and feeling a stab of jealousy that he wasn't able to provide any assurance to her. He lost most of the force of the feeling quickly enough, but sparks of envy still remained.

When the movie was over, an unhappy ending if Saguru ever saw one since the only surviving main character was killed off seconds before the credits appeared, they got out of their seats and started stretching.

"That was a good movie," his mother informed him. Saguru eyed her dubiously, and she laughed at him. They left the theater, most of the crowd having already died out. The dark purple sky greeted them when they exited the building.

While everyone started chatting joyfully about the film, Saguru let himself fall back. Kaito and his own mother were the ones who noticed, but she and the magician's mother were deep in conversation. Kaito was the one who slowed, leaving Aoko to smile down at Ai and ask her questions the smaller girl noticeably found no joy in answering.

"What was the purpose of today?" Saguru asked the magician when they'd put enough distance between them not to be overheard.

"What do you mean? We had fun" Kaito shrugged. "Why? Don't you ever do things like this?"

The silence that fell between them was enough of an answer as Saguru never had time for childish games or luxury. There were always things more important than 'hanging out'.

"Well then," Kaito closed his eyes and placed his hands behind his head with a relaxed expression on his face, "we'll have to do this more often so we can fix that." Kaito's words drifted off as another thought crossed his mind. "Hey, Hakuba-kun, why did you come here to chase the Kid? I'm sure the England isn't as dull as I think it is."

"My mother and father made a deal in the divorce. I was to be with one for a few years and the other later. When I come of age, I'm free to stay whenever I choose. My father had me here for six years after they had split up, two years after I was born. My mother took me afterwards. My father recently wanted me back here because, as of yet, he has no legal heir and I am his son."

"So you didn't want to come back, you had to. And Kid?"

"My father didn't want me involved in anything dangerous, so he made sure that I was with Nakamori-keibu so that I wouldn't get myself hurt."

"Have you ever done anything that made _you _happy?" Kaito's eyes were clear and curious. "It seems that everything else you've been doing has all been to satisfy someone else's needs."

I bestowed him with my most skeptical expression. "They're my parents. I have to listen to them."

"Says who? Half the time I don't listen to what my mom says. When it's important, I'm all for obeying her. But besides that, I'm a teenager, and a human being, I don't want to be forced into being someone I'm not."

"I'm not being forced into anything. I'm me. Simply because I listen to what I'm told, doesn't mean I'm being manipulated."

"No, but you're not living either." Kaito grinned down at him, showing off his Kid side in the soft glow of the moonlight that couldn't seem to find its way out of the clouds. "You don't have to worry about any of that right now though. From now on, I'm gonna make sure you have so much fun, you won't be able stand it."

Saguru let his face show his desolate mood. "With your idea of fun, I won't be surprised if you end up killing me in the process." But something inside him welcomed the idea, and Saguru had to wonder where in the world it had come from.


	19. Fun and Games

Hello. I am SOOO sorry about the wait. I had stuff to do for the holidays then, the day after Christmas, I got really sick and have  
been sick until yesterday. I had come cold/flu evil whatever it was. But I'm over it now ^^

Again, sorry about that. I'm shocked that I was sick for so long

* * *

_**Chapter 19: Fun and Games**_

They had a late dinner at a local shop, agreeing to split the bill this time when Saguru's mother and Kaito's started arguing over who would be paying. They got along well with each other despite how different they were, but seemed to constantly disagree on how much one owed the other. Saguru's mother's argument was solid, paying them back for taking care of him. Kaito's mother's also held water, being that Saguru had his own money and they weren't spending anything on his upkeep. He was tired of the fighting and let them have their way while he turned to Ai, and they ending up discussing the chemical makeup of other known viruses—making sure not to speak of one particular one—to see if there were similarities.

Aoko and Kaito were sitting together, but the closeness she had developed with the magician during the movie was gone, and she defaulted back to being mad at him. Saguru was stuck by an entertaining idea that, while embarrassing, he couldn't help but carry out.

They were sitting at a quiet restaurant and had pushed two of their tables together to make room for their group. Saguru was on the end, and he smiled at Ai when she stared at him as he got off his chair. When Saguru went around to Kaito and Aoko's side of the table, said magician eyed him as he moved. For once he was happy with his new height because what he was planning could only be pulled off with it.

"Aoko-neechan," he said in his best impression of a pleading child. He'd never been very good at it the first time around, but it didn't take much to sound needy, especially with a high voice. "I don't want to be by myself. Can I sit with you?"

He wasn't able to see Kaito's expression since he had to face Aoko, but he knew he'd surprised the other. It was hard to hold in a satisfied smile.

"What's wrong?" She pulled away from the table and bent down towards him. "You're a big boy now, so you should learn to sit at the table by yourself."

"But I don't want to. I wanna sit with you." Ah, the words were torturous, but he knew what he'd get out of it as a reward for his pain. Saguru lifted his arms and widened his eyes enough to make them water the way he wanted.

"Oh, fine," Aoko picked him up under the arms and placed him on her lap. It wasn't like Saguru wanted to make a habit out of it, but for the time being, it got him closer to the girl he was interested in while sticking it to Kaito since he'd never gotten back at the other boy for the multiple times he'd found himself gravitationally challenged. The magician was actually part of the reason that he liked Aoko so much. She stood up to him, unlike most of the class who basically let the magician get away with whatever he wanted. She was strong, and her sense of justice matched his own.

"Aoko, you shouldn't spoil him." Kaito rested his elbow on the table and glared at the two of them. Saguru couldn't help smiling, especially when Aoko wrapped a hand around his waist to keep him from falling off.

"It's fine Kaito. He's just a kid."

Kaito let out a breath and closed his eyes. They both knew he wouldn't fight her on it, and it was a decisive victory that Saguru could claim rights to for the first time outside of a heist.

"Well, I guess so. Speaking of kids, did you hear Kid is going after that jewel again?" Kaito grinned at him and Saguru felt himself tense at the same moment Aoko did.

"Again? I thought he didn't want it?" A slight frown marred her features, "Why does that thief find it so fun to drag my dad away from important things to deal with him, then not show? It would serve him right to get caught this time for messing with the police."

"Maybe he had a reason he couldn't take it last time," Kaito shrugged and Saguru absolutely hated himself—even silently_ cursed _himself—for feeling guilt for taking Kaito away from his little pleasure trip—even though the guilt only lasted a second.

"Kid's an idiot for stealing." Saguru folded his arms and closed his eyes. His endeavors on that matter had failed him so far and now living with Kaito had done nothing more than distracted him from his original goal. He'd known Kid was a walking death target for a while by evaluating the situation and taking note of what others brushed off as random acts of violence. That only made him detest Kaito's actions more for not only endangering himself but those around him whenever he went after something that caught the interest of more powerful people.

He wasn't the only one who was shocked when Aoko's arms wrapped tightly around him and her face nuzzled into his hair. "You've got that right. Kid is nothing but a jerk!"

Saguru would have liked to enjoy the moment, but something in her tone of voice that he had never caught onto before captured his attention. It had always long been said that children were the more perceptive ones when it came to things that adults normally overlooked. He wasn't sure if his new age, or his proximity to Aoko had done it, but there were fond notes under the anger in her voice. Almost as if she was speaking of Kid as an annoying younger brother.

He wasn't sure if Kaito had noticed the same ring to her words, as the magician looked away, seeming angrier at the fact that Aoko had grabbed onto him than the fact that she'd scolded Kaito's kleptomaniac second self.

"When is this happening? I haven't really been watching the news." Kaito's mother was the one that asked, further confusing Saguru. She knew about Kid. He was sure she knew with all the hints that she dropped around him. Shouldn't her son have told her when he was planning to go out all hours of the night to play a game with death?

"Tonight."

His mind reeled at the thought. Kaito had planned a heist the day after going to the funeral with him? Sure he had taken the magician away from his first attempt at acquiring the jewel, but going after it seem frivolous.

"I didn't realize that Kaitou Kid was so popular here. I've only heard of him through my husband - Ex-husband," Saguru's mother added with venom. "Can't say I ever cared to look into him."

Saguru's wide eyes pleaded with her to stop. They were supposed to be a friend of the Kuroba family, not his own. Even mentioning that his father was a police official would be giving away too much. While his mother didn't catch on, Kaito's mother saw his expression and stopped her from saying anymore.

"You're husband lives in Japan now, doesn't he? I can't believe two people who moved here from the states actually went to different continents when their marriage didn't work out."

Saguru's mother was confused for a moment before she noticed what she'd almost done. "Oh, I know, but he always liked it here better than at home. At least it means I don't have to accidently run into him, unless I go traveling like I have."

When the topic between the adults changed from Kid to marriage, Saguru sighed. Aoko had brought over his food so that he was able to eat while still in her lap. It wasn't as difficult as he thought it was going to be, as he'd only ordered a sandwich. For the most part he settled on eating and trying to stay out of the conversation, more because he had no input on the progress and ordeals that came with marriage than because he was afraid of revealing anything. More so, thoughts of Kid were now taking up his time. He couldn't _not go_. He didn't have to make his presence known, but he had to be there. Kaito was playing a dangerous game, and, while Saguru couldn't do anything, not going felt like an act of betrayal if something were to happen. Again, it was not as if he could stop anything from occurring under his watch, but it was the principle of the thing.

Aoko scared him out of his thoughts when she slammed a hand down on the table. He felt himself recoil under the sudden noise and tried hard to keep himself from screaming. Saguru knew that he was too emotionally wound up at the moment, but him being aware of it made it easier to hide.

"Kaito, shut up already!"

"Hey!" The magician looked around the small restaurant as several heads turned in their direction. "Keep it down, you loud mouth! We are in public!"

"As if that matters to you! I can't believe you just said that!"

Saguru must have missed whatever he said, and he was a bit disappointed that he had because he'd never seen Aoko that mad before. Kaito only shrugged in response, though there was a grin on his face he couldn't seem to get rid of.

"It's the truth, isn't it?"

"I don't care if it's the truth! No one would ever think that way! Don't be surprised if you never get married, Kaito!"

Okay, Saguru really wanted to know what he said now.

"Break it up, you two, or they're going to make us leave, and Kaito," the magician's mother turned to him, "say anything like that again, and I'll let Aoko continue the argument at her own leisure. You shouldn't talk to a girl like that, even if you're joking."

"Fine, fine. Sorry, Aoko." Kaito didn't look sorry, but no one brought up the argument again since everyone was staring at their group.

"I'm done eating. How about we start heading back?" Kaito's mother took their dishes and stacked them in the center of the table. Saguru was all for leaving and used the table to get off of Aoko's lap so he didn't accidently touch her anywhere he shouldn't. He could feel his hands shaking but could only wait for it to subside. Aoko hadn't meant to scare him, but a part of him wished he hadn't been so close to her when she had.

Paying the check and wishing they could avoid everyone's eyes, the group headed outside. It had gotten dark while they'd been eating, but the moon, though waning, was bright enough to light the world in a soft glow.

Saguru jumped when Ai placed a hand on his shoulder. He hadn't thought that the girl would want to talk to him, seeing as she was a fan of Kaito, and Saguru had intentionally provoked him.

"Calm yourself down. If you jump at everything, you're going to draw attention to yourself."

"It's not as if I intended too. I should have been listening to the conversation so I could have seen it coming. It's my own fault. I know how Kuroba-kun likes to rile her up. By the way, what was it he said to her?"

Ai seemed to color. Saguru was almost surprised enough by such blatant female emotion to stop.

"I happen to think it was some inside joke, but he said... You know, I don't really feel comfortable telling you."

Saguru didn't press because he didn't think he'd feel comfortable hearing if from her either.

Aoko walked ahead of the group, ignoring Kaito. The magician had wandered towards the back, seemingly in fear of any retaliation now that they weren't under the supervision of strangers. Saguru couldn't blame him for it either, walking away. Aoko could be scary when she was mad, and Saguru had made sure that he never had to face her wrath. He didn't like upsetting her either, so it hurt and confused him at how Kaito could do it so easily when it was obvious that he shared the same affections for the girl that he did.

Aoko left for her house after they were a few blocks from Kaito's. They lived close enough to one another, but there was still a good six or seven minute walk between the two. Kaito attempted to offer to walk her home, but was silenced by a glare that said any 'help' from him wouldn't be welcome.

"It's your own fault Kaito," the magician's mother scolded him as they walked the remaining blocks. "That was uncalled for."

"I didn't mean for her to take it so seriously."

"Girl's are delicate Kaito. Women too. You can't say such inappropriate things in front of us. I don't know how boys are but I know I've never heard anything like that from your father or Ginzo. I would have beaten them to a pulp if I had." Kaito's mother slammed a fist into her palm, making her son back away from her. "So be glad I didn't let Aoko-chan do the same."

"I'm glad, don't worry about it. Won't happen again."

"It better not."

"Well," Saguru's mother cut in for the first time, staying out of the argument. "I have to go back now, don't I?"

"I promised to call you, Mother. It won't be any different than it was before all of this happened." Saguru sped up to walk beside her.

"But it will be different now that I know that you're in danger."

He felt angry at her. He hadn't meant too but, just like his father, his mother was trying to keep him locked in a glass chest away from all the troubles of the world. He may have been in the body of his child self again, but that didn't mean that he wasn't up to knowing when it was and wasn't a good time to get himself into trouble. He was no fool, and it upset him that those around him couldn't trust him to act rationally.

"I'm not in danger. I couldn't be anywhere safer unless you flew me to the moon. I know you don't understand what's going on because I haven't told you, but know that there really isn't any danger... at the moment," he couldn't help adding. "There might be later, but right now I'm safe, so you have no reason to worry. I'll call you as much as you like."

"Don't worry about anything." The magician's mother put a hand on his mother's shoulder. "If you can trust me and your son, than know that he's in safe hands."

His mother nodded, though he was sure he saw tears on the edge of her eyes. "Why can't it be me? Why do I have to leave when it's _my_ son?"

"Because right now we can't let anyone know who he is." Kaito stepped up to his mother, hands in his pockets and sounding serious. "If you're here, even if you're disguised, you won't be home. If someone went looking into it, they would notice. The best thing you can do is to go back and live your life as you normally would."

"And you think that someone would watch me? You think it's that serious?"

"I don't like to take chances that I don't have to. You'd be risking more than I'd feel comfortable with, and I don't like to see people die." Kaito's eyes cut through any arguments that his mother tried to make. The notion of death coming around if she were to remain seemed to hit her hard, but there was something about Kaito that even Saguru had to admit was reassuring. "Everything will be fine as long as we have the situation under control and adding another person who could be traced back to Hakuba-kun will make it harder."

Finally with a nod, she bent down and kissed Saguru on the head. "Be safe. I'm going to go meet with your grandmother now. She's probably worried since I left her at the hotel." It seemed like she wanted to say more but there was nothing else that she could add to make the conversation last longer.

"I'll be fine mother. Take care of yourself and try not to worry too much."

His mother grabbed him into a tight hug before placing him back on the ground. "I'll try not to. Good bye."

"Bye."

Saguru watched, feeling ashamed at pushing his mother away but knowing there was no other choice in the matter. Kaito dropped his austere expression in favor of a grin, throwing his hands behind his head.

"I should get going too. Don't want to be late again."

"I'm going too." Saguru looked up at the magician scowling at him.

"You are definitely not going. If I thought your mother being here was a bad idea, you going with me is ten times worse."

"I won't be near the police and I'll make sure to keep clear of the area. I'll be around but no one will see me."

"And a little kid walking by himself won't catch someone's attention? Nope, it isn't going to work. Why do you want to come anyway?"

"I just want to." Saguru crossed him arms. He wouldn't be talked down. He'd find a way to go even if Kaito wouldn't take him. The magician noticed this, but didn't want to be talked down either.

"Now now. I see no reason why he shouldn't go. Saguru-kun, you know how dangerous it is for you to be out. As long as you do as you say and don't get too close, I don't see a problem. Kaito, he can make his own choices, so I'm not going to let you have any decide for him."

"But mom!" Saguru was surprised to find Kaito's mother on his side, which was much to Kaito's displeasure. Ai started at them indignantly but didn't voice her opinion. "You know what could happen."

"And I know what could happen with you too, and I still let you do what you want. You have no grounds to fight me on this."

It was clear Kaito wouldn't be winning this one, and even the magician knew it.

"But mom, I can't." Kaito averted his eyes for a moment before deciding that it was best to face his mother to get his point across. Saguru was much too short to stare the magician down so the contest of wills took place between the two.

"He knows already, doesn't he? What's it matter now?"

"But he—"

Kaito's mother put her hand up to stop any further argument. "Just because I haven't dropped two pennies from the same height doesn't mean I don't know that they'll hit the ground at the same time.

"Fine, point taken, but you're waiting out here!" Kaito jabbed a finger down at the ground when he stared at Saguru. "I need to grab a few things and you not going to—just stay here."

"I'm staying." Saguru sat down on the concrete front step that jutted out from front of the house. "Don't try and sneak away without me, and I won't bother you."

Kaito walked in without acknowledging him. The magician's mother entered next.

"Be careful, and don't get yourself in trouble."

Saguru didn't even have time to nod before she'd already passed him. Ai didn't say anything, instead shouting into the house as she closed him outside. "Kaito-kun if you ever say anything like that in front of _me_ again either, I'll make sure you—"

Then it was cold, and he was left out in the dark to wait, feeling the breeze try and get at him through his thin clothes. I wasn't all that cold out but the step he was sitting on was a few degrees cooler than the air, chilling him.

Kaito only took a few minutes and came out donning a black baseball cap and equally dark jacket that Saguru was sure he'd never seen the other teen wear before.

"Come on, we're gonna take the bus."

Saguru got to his feet and had to sprint to catch up. Kaito seemed to be in a bad mood after losing the argument, but Saguru saw no way around that.

"Kuroba-kun, not to make you angry, but what was it you said to make Aoko-san so angry?"

"Oh, ah- I really wasn't thinking. Looking back I realize how stupid it was." He shrugged, "But it's not like I can turn back time. I mentioned something—inappropriate, I guess— to her. I don't really feel like repeating it."

"Come one, everyone already heard you, and I'll hear it from your mother later if you don't tell me."

Kaito's eyes glinted in the moonlight. "Fine, but really, it was stupid of me. They were talking about marriage and all, and I heard Aoko say that she was going to wait for a guy she described as perfect. I said, well, that if she got that mad at me when I flipped her skirt, she'd kill anyone who tried to take it off."

Saguru was torn between complete shock and laughter. A small cough of noise was the result of the clash. "And you were surprised when everyone got mad at you?"

"No, I guess I wasn't really thinking." Kaito scratched the back of his head and looked away. "I mean, it still doesn't sound that bad to me, but Aoko got so mad. She probably won't talk for me for weeks. Good thing I won't be in school for a while."

Saguru nodded, unsure of what he was supposed to say to that.

The bus ride was short, though it took them a few blocks from the owners of the house in possession of the diamond. Kaito made sure he didn't get within a block of the property before vanishing with a warning that if the magician were to catch sight of him, he'd be sleeping outside tonight.

Saguru really didn't have any want to get closer. He stayed down the street, watching the flashing red lights of the police cruisers that were station out front. He stood there, not really sure what he wanted to do. He had to be there, but what was one supposed to do when they weren't even allowed to watch?

A dark figure off to the corner came to his attention a little too slowly, and Saguru jumped back into the wall before calming himself down with a hand at his chest.

"Kudo-kun, please don't do that."

"I wasn't looking to scare you." The smile that accompanied the other's words didn't say the same. "So, you did come."

"I couldn't stay back." Saguru looked back at the mansion, the red lights flashing Shinichi's clothes front blue to purple. "You came too."

"No, I was actually forced to come this time. I don't like to be given a game I'm told I'm not allowed to win. Kogoro-ojisan was invited here by a friend of Ran's, so naturally they couldn't leave me at the house alone." There was a sigh there in his words, hidden under acceptance.

"So, what do you want to do? I've been forbidden from getting close."

Shinichi tilted his head towards a building across the street that had several floors, the bottom of which was a cafe. "I say we watch. It can't be much fun being down here."

So they both went up the elevator on and onto the terrace of the building. It really was a decent spot to observe from, though several large buildings stopped them from seeing half of the estate.

"So," Shinichi said as he sat on the ground near the ledge that was blocked off by a thick metal fence. "I haven't heard much from your end, so I have to guess things have been going well."

"Not really." Saguru sat beside him, his back resting against the out-cropping. "There have been several problems, but they all revolve around me, not the other two."

"Really? We've got time." Shinichi looked towards the lights and back at him. The brunette's eyes sparkled when they rested on the wig that Saguru had forgotten he was still wearing. "Tell me."

So he did. There really wasn't much he had to hide from Shinichi. He only had to be careful about mention of Kaito and Nakamori when it came time to explain it. Shinichi didn't seem to mind the gaps in his story, so he finished without feeling regret.

"You're two weeks sound like they've been just as full as mine. You wouldn't believe how many people think they can get away with murder these days."

"Doesn't that get tiring?"

The look of skepticism made Saguru want to take back his words.

"Does helping the police solve murders get tiring? No, not really. It's something that has to be done, and it's not like I could ignore it even if I wanted to."

"I didn't intend for it to come out that way. I simply meant that I have other passions besides detective work, which is why I don't really mind having to stay away from it for the time being. I was asking more if you ever found time to do anything else because you make it sound like that's all you ever do is solve cases. That, while commendable, would be dreary after a time."

"Oh no, school helps to liven things up. As boring as it is being back in middle school, there are plenty of things that the kids get me into besides murder cases. Even the police aren't wound up all the time."

A great deal of shouting started up halfway through Shinichi's explanation. They both knew the cause of it, but there wasn't anything obvious happening at the building in which the chaos was taking place.

"I guess we should get going then." Saguru pushed up off the floor as he saw Kid's hang glider take off from one of the top floor windows. "I don't like riding the bus alone at night when I'm this small."

"Yeah, I guess so." Shinichi sighed as he got up. "This isn't any fun."

Shinichi's sudden interest in the sky had Saguru looking back over his shoulder.

"What is it?"

"Kid's flying is off." A simple statement but one that held darker implications. Kid never did anything that was less than perfect in front of a crowd if he could help it. Saguru took a more critical look and saw that Kid's flying was indeed strange. Every few seconds the glider would tilt forwards for a few moments before Kid seemed to right it. It appeared as if he were fighting a wind gust that was trying to force him down, but wind didn't work that way. Too much and the thief would be forced higher up, too little and he would descend, not be forced to tilt forward.

"I wonder what's wrong..." Saguru wondered aloud, hoping that Shinichi had answers, since the other detective had been facing the thief's general direction, and Saguru had not.

"I don't know but..." Shinichi made his way off the roof they were occupying. Saguru was confused but followed in the other's wake, realizing quickly that Shinichi was a much faster runner than he. The other detective noted this and slowed his pace, though never enough for Saguru to catch up.

Once outside, Shinichi quickly scanned the skies in search of the thief. Saguru stopped to take in a few pants of breath, glancing up as well to see what it was that had caught the other's attention besides the obvious.

Shinichi closed his eyes, mentally calculating something.

"This way," he spoke after two minutes, taking off at a hurried pace. Saguru took in a breath before following him. The shorter legs of the other left him even more baffled as to why he couldn't keep pace. Saguru was in no way out of shape, above average in most track and field events compared to others of his age. He put the thoughts into the back of his mind as they weren't helping him and had nothing to do with the situation at hand besides dealing with his own pride.

The quick pace left little oxygen for conversation, and Saguru feared what he might hear even if he could speak. Kaito hadn't gotten much sleep in some time, hadn't prepared for the heist like Saguru was sure he normally would have. It wasn't unthinkable that he thief had made a mistake and gotten himself hurt or caught.

Shinichi stopped, allowing Saguru to catch his breath. He'd been running non-stop further than the human body could handle. Saguru wanted to sit down for a moment but he noticed a broken window on the high rise across the street a minute after Shinichi did.

"I don't really want to break and enter, but we could always blame it on him." Shinichi bent over and turned a dial on his shoe, a strange electronic ring coming with the action.

"Did he crash?"

"Your guess is as good as mine. If you want, we could leave. I'm pretty sure the police didn't see that."

"_I_ didn't see it." Saguru looked back up at the shattered glass, seeing pieces littering the street below it. He felt unsure of what to do. If he were alone, he wouldn't have thought twice about it. Right now he was with another detective though, one who didn't know Kaito. Not that Saguru could claim to know the teen to any real extent aside from figures. He knew that Kaito was in danger, knew he wanted the thief out of harm's way. He also knew that look on Shinichi's face wasn't purely curiosity wanting to see if Kaito was alright.

Shinichi grinned. "I'm not going to do anything. Right now he's splitting us up and giving me a better chance at staying hidden. I wouldn't cut off my own foot just because I'm hungry."

A quick mental evaluation showed that the cons outweighed the pros of Shinichi acting against Kaito, so he let them go, making his way over to the office building. The broken window was on the fourteenth floor, which meant they'd be climbing their fair share of stairs, but he didn't let his thoughts get far since Saguru wasn't sure how Shinichi expected to get in.

What appeared to be a soccer ball fell to the floor. Saguru looked at him, but Shinichi didn't show where it had come from, taking a few steps and kicking the ball with the whirring sneaker.

Saguru was amazed when the inflatable orb broke through the glass of the front door. He knew that the noise didn't go unheard but Shinichi didn't seem to care, so he followed the object in, Saguru on his heels, careful of the glass fragments still clinging to the metal frame.

It didn't take as long to transcend the stairs as he had feared. He quickly became tired again but not enough to want to stop. Saguru wasn't sure when some logical part of his brain stopped working, and things became sights and sound and feelings, all separate.

After a few wrong rooms they came to an office, glass littering the floor and an unconscious Kid sprawled out with half his glider collapsed beneath him.

More physical things were registered but nothing past that. He hadn't expected to find Kaito, even if the thief had crashed. The boy was an illusionist, someone who didn't show weakness. Even if he had crashed, Saguru had expected to see nothing of it, as if the mistake had never happened.

Saguru was more aware of the shards crunching under his feet then he was of following Shinichi as he made his way over to the thief. A cursory glance was enough to give Saguru an idea of what had happened.

"Don't worry, it's just shock." Shinichi made a move to touch Kaito but took his hand back. He got out of the way and offered Saguru his place. "Better for me not to be the first thing he sees. Mental shock isn't the easiest thing to get over and I think he'll react better to you than me."

Saguru nodded, kneeling down next to the thief. The top hat had fallen off to the side and Kaito's spiky hair was sticking up, a small amount of blood holding it to his skin near his right eye, monocle missing all together.

Shock was something Saguru was familiar with, though not from trauma. He could see that Kaito had his eyes halfway opened, but wasn't seeing him.

"Kuro-" Saguru looked over at Shinichi, letting the name slide. If he wanted to, Shinichi would find out Kaito's secrets without his help. "Kuroba-kun, can you hear me? What happened?"

Kaito smiled, turning his head to the side but his eyes remained unfocused. "Hey. What are you doing here?" The magician frowned. "Where's here?" Kaito tried to move before wincing and letting himself fall back into a lax position. Saguru looked over the part of the glider that was still intact, hiding most of Kaito's body under the thin frame like a broken wing.

As opposed to pain dulling his senses more, it seemed to wake Kaito up. The thief blinked his eyes a few times before reaching his hand into his coat to collapse what was left of the structure. A dark smear of blood colored his side when Kaito flung the cape over himself and moved to stand up.

"You're hurt, don't get up!" Saguru tried to stop him but Kaito smiled, getting up anyway.

"That shouldn't surprise you by now. I get hurt all the time. Anyway, you want me to sit here and wait for someone to notice me? That's not the best idea I've heard coming from you Hakuba-kun."

Kaito's eyes found Shinichi, the magician noticing that there wasn't anything to hide him. Kaito sighed. "Tantei-kun, please don't take this any further."

"I won't unless I have to." Shinichi folded his arms with a defiant smile to match Kaito's. Saguru was torn between angry and confused at how both of them could let the thief's obvious injury go.

"And you Hakuba-kun." As if to prove that he was all right, Kaito took his arm on his injured side and reached down to grab Saguru by the ankle, lifting him up so he dangled like Christmas tree ornament. "You we're supposed to stay out of the way. What if someone saw you with me?"

"It's not like I'd be in any more danger than I already am." Saguru's head swam. "Kuroba-kun, I thought I told you it wasn't such a good idea to pick me up like that."

Kaito didn't put him down but he spun him around so that he was being held up by the scruff of his coat. "Fine then you little loud mouth, if you want to be such a trouble maker I guess I'll just have to take you home my way." Kaito put him down and grabbed the side of his cape that had lain limp beneath him. With a few snaps at what appeared to be coming from the cloth, as Saguru couldn't see the framework underneath, Kaito picked him back up.

"I should be getting back. Don't fly into anymore windows." Shinichi blew them off with a wave of the hand.

"I'll try not to Tantei-kun."

"Wait, _fly_? **No**." Saguru tried to get out of Kaito's reach but it wasn't possible. His struggles stopped all together when Kaito leaned out the window he had broken in through and shot a grappling hook up to reach the roof, a good eight stories up.

"We could always take the stairs..." Saguru gripped Kid's white coat and tried not to look down as they ascended, thoughts of the teen's wound all but gone, replaced with the rational fear of falling.

"Now, Hakuba-kun, where would the fun in that be?" The malice in Kaito's eyes didn't go unnoticed, and Saguru made sure that, as much as he thought he had won earlier that evening with Aoko, there was no victory against a kaitou who liked to steal it back.


	20. Victim

_**Chapter 20: Victim**_

The wind was much colder higher up on the building. On the outside of it at least. The wind-chill alone had Saguru clinging close to Kaito, shivering.

"I didn't think about how cold you'd be because you're small." Kaito shook his head, making Saguru flinch at the movement as it swung them while he climbed. "I'll fix that when we get up there."

Getting 'up there' took a lot longer than Saguru wanted it to. He wasn't as overly terrified of heights as some, but when there was nothing but an arm around him as a safety measure when he was a good hundred feet up, it was rather terrifying.

"Now." Kaito dropped him over the side of the building before getting up himself and recoiling the line of the grappling hook into his gun with the click of a button. "It was never supposed to get this far."

"I agree." Saguru folded his arms in front of him, snuggling them closer when he realized it was a good way to keep warm. "I knew people were after you, but I didn't know you'd let them shoot you so easily. You should stop while you still have your life."

Kaito started laughing, trying to hide it before sitting down on the rooftop, Kid's cape blowing around him and nicking Saguru's pants. "Not that. I mean, you shouldn't have—I shouldn't have shown you. It was the one thing you never had solid proof on." Kaito turned his head to the side, shadows rolling over them both from the buildings below. "I guess you have me now. I can't talk my way out of this once you're... normal again. An eye witness account from you is pretty tough to fight."

"Who cares about that?" Saguru blinked, confused. "I've known you were Kid forever. Having you next to me is a little different, but I've never had any doubt in my conviction. Kuroba-kun, don't you think going to Kudo-kun was enough proof for that? How he knew who you were still has me baffled, but I'm no fool." He saw what Kaito was getting at, and he didn't like it one bit. The magician was more afraid of letting out his secrets than he was of the danger around him. That, in itself, was dangerous. Saguru shook his head at the other's foolishness. "Even if I were, how would I explain myself? '_Oh, I know he's Kid because he carried me up the building and we talked?_' How very believable, not to mention humiliating."

"I'm sure you could get your point across using not so many words."

Saguru sighed. This was hopeless. Unless he could get Kaito to believe what he said was true, which he had no idea how to do, it didn't seem like this argument was going to end, and Saguru hated being misjudged. "Who's worried about the metaphorical knife at their throat now?"

Kaito laughed, unbridled. "Yeah, but I don't go around jumping at every little thing because I'm afraid of the consequences of something as easy as walking next to someone."

"I've never met someone who cares about their every action as much as you do, so don't lie to me. You may not show it, but you're a very cautious person, Kuroba-kun." Saguru smirked, almost eye level with the magician when he saw the brief flash of displeasure run through him. "Like, even now, you're nervous about me speaking your name aloud. There are no ghosts on this rooftop to share the information with and I'm sure you crashed into this particular building by chance, so that eliminates the possibility of someone bugging it. I do know when to keep quiet, just as you do, if not better."

"And why would a detective want to protect a thief? You were determined enough to catch me last time. Don't want to do it now because I know about your situation? I wouldn't say anything, if that's what has you worried. I'm not deaf. Kudo-kun has said, repeatedly, how dangerous these people after you are. Ai-kun's told me bits and pieces about them as well, while I've been with her. My words could get you killed, and I wouldn't do that."

"And my words could have the same affect." Saguru stared the magician down. "I know you're in danger. I won't say anything. I'm..." _He was what?_ He was still planning on catching Kaito, as Kid, so that he'd win their duel fairly. After that had happened, he wanted to make sure that... that Kaito was in jail where those trying to kill him couldn't get him.

Saguru searched the magician, or thief, looking for answers. He was young. Hakuba knew, being the same age, how terrible it would feel if someone put _him_ behind bars. He knew the law was important though. He couldn't ignore the fact that Kaito broke it several times a week, for his own ends. That wasn't right. But seeing him in jail for those crimes didn't seem right either. Motive aside, Kaito had never harmed anyone, never kept anything. If anything, he'd helped bring down several criminals in his year or so of activity.

Returned or not, the theft charges would stay with him, along with breaking and entering, vandalism, and Kami knows what other charges could be tacked onto those. For all purposes, Saguru would feel like he was sentencing an innocent person to a life of restriction.

"Feeling conflicted about something now? I am a criminal after all and, like it or not, we are friends. One thing though." Kaito hid his eyes under the top hat. All that was showing was a weary smile. "If you do catch me, or if someone else does, please take care of my mom."

"Of course." Saguru didn't take in any of the implications. The need that Kaito was giving off was much stronger than his words. Saguru would have agreed to any request that he was given, this one though, didn't make much sense after he thought about it. "If I'm the one who catches you, she won't want to be anywhere near me. No one is that forgiving."

"She doesn't have to like you. She just has to be safe."

Saguru wanted to ask what it was he was supposed to be keeping her safe from, but Kaito had gotten up, taking a winter cap out of his coat and securing it over Saguru's head so that his ears were protected. In that same rushed moment he was picked, held tight to Kaito as the thief used his free hand to find a switch. This was all done in the span of a breath, during which Saguru only had time enough to think his questions before the feeling of falling overtook him.

Saguru felt the cold air rush around them, knowing there was no ground below his feet that it wouldn't be the death of him to reach. The chill and the velocity forced him to close his eyes and bury his face into Kaito's coat, not giving him a chance to figure out any of the questions that had come to him because of Kaito's odd request, nor to understand his own feelings about seeing the Kid arrested.

Even after the gilder snapped, Saguru didn't want to look. It was biting out and he was able to keep himself from going numb by staying close. If he were to peak at the world around him, he was sure his face would be frozen the minute he turned.

"Come on, Hakuba-kun. It's not that bad once you get used to it."

"Sure." Saguru was certain Kaito didn't hear his words, having whispered them into his hands. "You have fun getting _used_ to freezing yourself."

"Here." The magician's voice traveled clearing through the wind howling around his ears. Kaito took his other arm and Saguru felt the glove brush against his face as he tried his best to keep the wind from stinging him. "See if you can turn around. I doubt the view is anything new to you, but until you try it outside of a closed environment, it's a whole new experience."

Why not? As long as Kaito was keeping him warm and secure, looking around couldn't be that terrible. The magician's hand followed him as he turned his head towards the building below, moving to create a visor over his eyes so that Saguru would be able see what he was looking at. Tears formed on the edge of his vision as the wind made him blink, but it didn't bother him much in those first few seconds.

He'd been in a helicopter several times, a plane far more often, but he'd never seen the city look so bright and alive before. There were no windows to look out of, no people around him to bother him with their chatter. Unlike a plane, Saguru could feel the power of the gilder, obedient under Kaito's every whim. It was a moving and wonderful experience, like a roller coaster in which the tracks could be gilded whatever direction imaginable, at a moment's notice.

Beyond even that, his mind started to let the aerodynamic physics of it fall away. More and more, it felt like he was he was in the claws of a giant bird as it flew around the city. The glove pressing against his head had the bird imagery flowing to more biblical channels. He ignored those completely.

Kaito was right, it was nothing like being in a machine. Never once though, was he afraid. He was no daredevil, but some part of him even wanted to go as far as have Kaito stop holding him so close, so that he could feel the wind rushing through his hair undaunted. It was too cold for that at the moment, and embarrassing for another, so he let those thoughts be. This wasn't something that was likely to happen again, and even if it did, winter was coming. It would only get colder out.

Saguru didn't realize how close they were to Kaito's house. Until the magician had them going down, faster than Saguru was comfortable with, the city had been nothing but a dark swamp of lights and indiscriminate noises. Kaito circled around, landing gracefully in the back yard.

"Aren't you afraid someone saw you?" he had to ask. If Kaito didn't even like him saying his name on an empty rooftop, landing in his own backyard as Kid didn't seem like an appropriate action.

"No. It's late. Even my most devote fans wouldn't be out in this cold to try and catch a glimpse of me so long after my heist had ended. I never strike close to home and they," Kaito tipped his head backwards, "are a married couple. The husband works mornings and he goes to sleep early. His wife follows his schedule. I don't have to worry about them seeing me. Their house also keeps me hidden." Kaito shrugged. "I would have seen a car follow me, so it's safe enough."

"Is this the first time you're doing it?"

"Yes," Kaito admitted. "But I think landing here was better than both of us walking the streets at this hour. Either way, we'd get attention. Flying is a lot faster and, if you hurry up and get in the house, any wandering eyes will think we've disappeared."

"Fine." Saguru didn't feel like arguing about it. This way meant less time outside, though it wasn't nearly as cold now that he was sedentary and on the ground.

The back door opened near a pantry in the back of the house, the stairs were next but Kaito walked passed them without pausing until he was in the living room. The magician, still in his stark white outfit, fell onto the couch. Before he could lift his leg to hide the blood, Saguru remembered what had been bothering him before their jump off the building.

"Kuroba-kun, you do intend to treat that, don't you?"

"After you go to sleep."

"And why should you need me to be asleep first? Self-conscious or not, it's not as if I haven't seen you with your shirt off before. Taking off your clothes as Kid will have no greater impact on my than seeing you change out of a normal outfit."

"That's not the problem." Kaito grinned at him in the thief's guise, the absence of the monocle making him look all the more devious than either of the magician's personalities could have pulled off separately. "You're too nosey."

"I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean. What does that have to do with you treating that wound?" Saguru got himself up on the couch, next to the magician. Without at word or second thought, he threw the side of the coat open to see what the damage was.

Kaito shoved his hand away and jumped as far as he could before wincing, falling back inwardly as he tried to find a position his body could be in without causing him pain.

"Kuroba-kun, does it hurt you that much?"

"Of course it does," Kaito hissed through his teeth, face buried in one of the cushions. "You try getting shot and see how well you put up with it."

Saguru reached out a tentative hand, this time gently pushing away the material of Kid's coat that had been torn through when the bullet had hit Kaito's ribs. There was plenty of blood, and Saguru saw Kaito shy away from even the smallest amount of contact. "Sorry, I have to imagine it is pretty painful. We did find you unconscious."

"I thought I'd be able to put up with it." Kaito shook his head. "I mean, this isn't the first time I've been shot, but I was never hit while I was flying before. All I knew was that it hurt and I was bleeding. You have no idea how hard it was to fly the glider. I'm lucky I didn't smash into the building instead of the window." Kaito raised a hand to his head where the blood had already dried. "Though I'm pretty sure that's why I was out of it." He laughed. "Probably shouldn't have gone for it head first."

Saguru had known that there were bullets and, in the past, imagined that the thief, even with his luck, had gotten hit at least once, though he'd never seen any proof of such an injury. So, while it was no surprise to him, Saguru didn't like the fact that he hadn't noticed the that they were there. "What do I have to do in order for you to fix yourself up?"

"That all depends." Kaito winked. "Can I trust you to do what you're told?"

Saguru smiled back. "That all depends on what you ask."

"Go to my room. I should be up there in fifteen minutes or so, maybe longer. Don't leave. I don't believe that I'm asking much from you."

"Hm?" Saguru looked around the room, finding nothing out of place. He'd been living there for the better part of two weeks. What could Kaito possibly have to hide from him?

"And don't go snooping around when I'm not there to keep an eye on you." The magician reached over playfully and fluffed his hair. Saguru didn't find it amusing, since his hair was layered and most of the longer strands hit him in the eye.

"Why do we have to play this game?" Saguru shocked himself at the venom in his words. He shook his head, trying to apologize without vocalizing, as he didn't trust himself to speak again. To have others surprise him was normal, but he rarely surprised himself. Spontaneity didn't suit him and he hated not having control of his own emotions.

"Sorry."

Kaito laughed when Saguru's eyes shot up at him. He hadn't expected the magician to be the one to ask forgiveness. He wasn't the one who was at fault, and it made Saguru angrier than it appeased him.

"I shouldn't have spoken." Saguru moved to get off the couch before something caught onto the back of his shirt. He turned to Kaito, seeing a flash of pain cross his face before he grinned.

"It's fine. You can't possibly be put it anymore danger than you are now. You're in danger if you stay a child because they might find you out. You're in danger if we find an antidote because, again, there's a chance they could recognize you because you have been on the news before. And now, because you know who I am, you're in danger for a whole other reason. I don't think I've met anyone with such a high chance of dying."

Saguru frowned, but Kaito continued to smile as if the deadly situation he was is was funny. He knew Kid was a target. He _didn't_ know that being close to the thief could put his life at risk. Like Kaito had already said though, it wasn't as if he could fall any deeper into the pit. Then again, maybe he could.

"Come on then." Kaito got to his feet, waiting for Saguru to follow. He got up slower, the desperation of his circumstances finally starting to hit him. He could die—had almost died. Kaito slapped him on the back of head and it really hurt.

"What was that for?" He knew to keep his voice down because the girl's were likely asleep and they hadn't had much rest the night before. That didn't stop him from adding an edge to his words.

"You're worrying too much. It makes you look like an idiot." Kaito sighed, bending down on one knee so he wouldn't aggravate his injury. "Besides, I'm about to show you something you'll be interested in. I don't want your attitude ruining it."

Saguru shut up, though he did rub the back of his head for good measure. That had hurt. A very unpleasant headache was also coming on from the hit.

"Trust me," Kaito lidded his eyes, turning back with wary patience after he passed up the television "my head hurts worse than yours does."

Point taken. Bashing your head into a window going fast enough to shatter it would hurt more.

Kaito stopped at a picture Saguru had seen the moment he'd stepped into the room. He was too caught up in everything the first few days that he'd left it be. After that, Kaito's mother had taken the photos out and he'd realized who it was. The picture, then, was something special and not something Saguru wanted to mess around around with.

Kaito yawned, rubbing his eyes. "Sorry, I guess I'm still tired. Here." The magician pushed the frame of the portrait, an automated light clicking on as a room beyond the painting was revealed. Saguru was taken with the old movie motif more than the contents that lie beyond him. He watched Kaito enter before he did, climbing over the foot or so of plaster and examining the electronic mechanism that opened the photo in a revolving door fashion. The gears along the wall were amazing. He wasn't sure where the wires, built into what looked like a lock, went to, but he was interested in finding out.

"Of course. I let you in and the first thing you want to look at is the door. Should have expected that from someone as weird as you." Kaito opened a different door, farther inside the hidden room, causing Saguru to turn at the noise. The rest of the space came into focus, giving him incentive to get back to the door later in favor of the seeing what else there was.

The boxes were interesting enough, though he couldn't make head or tails of some of the items in them. What kept drawing him in was the car. It was a convertible like his own, the fact that it was _inside_ of a _room_ had him wanting to check it out.

He had to pass Kaito to get to it. All his searching stopped there as he saw the magician already had the coat off and was unbuttoning the silk shirt. When that was gone, the deep bruise he'd seen recently coincided with the blood.

"Here." Saguru grabbed the alcohol that had been put on the table. "Let me help."

"I can do it. Give it back."

The magician was too tired or too hurt, or both, to keep up that obnoxious smile of his. Saguru moved to Kaito's other side to have a better angle on the injury, taking his own handkerchief out of his pocket and dousing it in the liquid.

"I can do it."

"Damn it, fine." Kaito rested his arm on the back of the chair, wincing as it caused more blood to flow down his side, already staining the chair and his pants. Saguru pressed the cloth to the injury, wishing he had another one to wipe the blood away with first. Now that he was close, he saw how deep the wound was. Stitches worth at the least, and surgery worthy at the worst. He took the alcohol bottle again.

"Kuroba-kun, I'm going to pour it right on there. You're bleeding so much that it's not getting to the point of injury."

"Got it."

Saguru poured the liquid over the wound, hearing Kaito choke on a yell. This was too much. The magician needed to get real, medical, help. He felt Kaito shake, but after the initial noise, he didn't vocalize any further pain. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Kaito was a teenager here. He didn't deserve getting hurt the way he was. How much had Saguru missed? He'd been afraid that he'd find Kaito hurt one day, a victim of those mysterious... shooters... who...

_He was a victim._ Saguru held the cloth up to wound, numbly taking the bandaging from Kaito as it was handed to him. Kaito was a criminal, but that didn't justify all this. It was the frist time that Saguru ever admitted to himself that the magician was anything more than a showy crook with some underlying motive that Kaito justified his work with. That didn't mean that people could go around trying to kill him without the police so much as batting an eye about it. Why? What was so important?

Saguru felt his hands shake. He was angry, and confused, maybe a bit tired. They all added up to making him more unstable than he had ever been before. He felt like shouting at Kaito, demanding his answers, hunting down those people and finding what human trash could callously try and take someone's life , and finding Nakamori and demanding Kaito be put somewhere where no one could get at him, confessing to both of their situations.

"Something wrong?"

Saguru eyes shoot up to the magician's tired ones. Kaito smiled, seeing the derangement Saguru knew his features were in.

"There's nothing I can do about it." The magician blinked a few times, looking much older than he was. "Try not to worry too much. I can put up with it, and I _am_ going to get them, so they'll get what's coming."

"I don't understand." Saguru kept his voice level, the fury quickly reaching and uncontrollable level. "This shouldn't happen. If it is, stop. It's that simple."

"I can't stop."

Kaito held in a breath while Saguru pushed on the bullet wound, bandages staining quickly as he finished dressing the injury.

"Of course you can stop. It's easy. Next time your kleptomania kicks in, find something else to do. Eat something, read, or even go on your bloody hang glider. Anything. It's that easy."

"You know that's not what I meant." Kaito got up, opening a closet door in the back of the room and putting on a black, button-up shirt. "I have another favor to ask."

"What?" Saguru was at the edge of dealing with everything. He didn't have reasons, he didn't have answers, heck, he didn't even have space in his conscious mind for all the questions he had, most of which were aimed at Kid, but not all.

"Don't tell my mom."

Saguru closed his eyes, taking deep breaths so that he wouldn't shout and wake the others in the house. "Kuroba-kun, your mother knows you're Kid. Even if she didn't, which we both clearly know she does, you were almost _killed_ tonight. That's not something I can lie about."

"I told you that you shouldn't have come." Kaito walked passed him, distance now near the level it had been before they were forced together. "I'm prepared for this. If you're not, don't come to the next heist either. I don't know when it's going to be, but I'll make sure mom babysits you so that I can do my job."

"Kuroba-kun, hold it right there." He'd raised his voice slightly, but Kaito was at the picture frame already, pushing it opened to get back out. "Don't make me the bad guy in this situation. You were hurt. There's someone out there, right now, that's ready and willing to murder you for reasons that I can't understand. I just want to help."

"I don't need any help. I've gotten by well enough on my own, and I'll continue to do things my way. I said you could stay here, but that was only to keep you safe. I don't want you messing around in things that are better left alone. Goodnight... and, thanks."

"I don't need your thanks."

Kaito was gone, leaving Saguru alone in a room that no longer held any interest to him. He was sure it would later, but right now, all he could do was worry, and discovering Kaito's many secrets was growing less and less appealing.

Saguru smiled sadly to himself. When did things get so messed up? Had they been that way before, and he was too blind to see things as they actually were instead of as they seemed? He'd seen through the magician's tricks and his carelessness. Saguru knew there were killers out there. He knew what was going on, though he didn't know why. Considering there were no fresh developments that had come along in the case of Kid, the only thing that he could attribute to his change in attitude was his growing closeness to Kaito, as a person. But Saguru had to admit to not caring about the magician's health beforehand if that were true, and he couldn't believe that he had ignored that before. Every detective wants what's best for everyone, even the criminal- at least, the good detectives did. Was he... had he _not _been one of those 'good' detectives?

Throwing his progress aside, now that all this had happened to him, could he even call himself a detective anymore? When was the last time he'd been interested in solving a case he wasn't thrown into? Kid was different. That was fun, interesting. It was a game of wits where he could square off against an elusive thief who everyone held above mortal limits. Kaito was smart. The games were challenging. But Saguru felt like it had been just that, a challenge. Anyone of higher mental capabilities could have taken on the same concepts and analyzed the situation for themselves. They didn't have to be in the criminal investigations department in order to attain the same results that Saguru had long ago compiled.

It made him feel weaker than he already was. As a child, he couldn't hope for the same results that he had achieved when he was his correct age. There were murders out there, ready to kill Kaito, and another bunch out there to kill him. How could he possibly stop either from reaching their goal in his current predicament?

This was real. Some part of him, the part that he'd had all his life telling him throughout cases not to go down certain venues because they _were not possible_, was gone. He found himself shaking, alone in the secret room that had been beside him all this time, though he hadn't taken the opportunity to notice. How had he kept himself so blind to everything before?

There were too many questions, and not even Kaito had the answers he wanted this time. He wasn't one to judge, shouldn't have been the one scolding the other teen on what they were doing. Kaito, at least, knew his opponents well enough to take care of himself. Like the magician had said, he'd been doing well enough before Saguru had shown up. For being a detective, he had only a covered face to go on. The woman could have been anyone, could have been walking the street next to him all this time and he wouldn't have known her.

Saguru flipped the portrait until it clicked into place. From his vantage point, he was being stared down upon by a man in a white outfit, a knowing smile hidden just out of sight. Saguru unintentionally jumped back from the image. He hadn't expected to see another one on the reverse side of Kaito's father. Now though, everything snapped into place with such clarity that Saguru hadn't noticed the transition he made from standing to sitting.

Kaito's father. That man was Kaito's father. It all made sense. He'd been Kid. Chances were that something had happened to the older man, much like it had happened to Kaito tonight, and he'd been injured- or killed. That police wouldn't have looked too hard into the death of a criminal. Saguru could only imagine what the magician had been feeling at the time. He'd seen the pictures, noticed how young Kaito was when the magician's mother told him that her husband had died. Kaito's younger version had to have known something was wrong. Kid has reappeared less than a year ago. Knowing Kaito as well as he was beginning to, if he knew the truth, he would have started up much sooner, which meant that he had only found out recently. There was only one reason to bring Kid back to life. If the police couldn't find the killers, then maybe a thief could. Use the right bait and you can catch the right fish.

He couldn't fault Kaito for anything he'd been doing. The police were the ones to blame this time, not the criminal. As much of a vigilante that it made him, Saguru knew he'd be doing the same thing if someone were to kill his mother.

The car in the corner looked enticing, and the floor was too cold. Saguru went over to the sleek machine, covered in a fine layer of dust. He'd been wrong about everything. He hated feeling so stupid. Opening the door, he climbed into the back seat of the vehicle, curling up on warm cloth material. He couldn't face Kaito, not with the way he'd been inadvertently yelling at him about all the wrong things. As much as he hated being wrong, apologies weren't his specialty. He'd often aggravate an argument instead of amending it. It was his people skills. Since moving to Japan, everything was new to him. People looked, acted, spoke in a way that was foreign to him. He hadn't been back for years before, since he was seven, so it was no surprise that he had to relearn so many things that time had erased from him.

The light must have had a manual switch, because it turned off around five minutes after Saguru had closed the door. The darkness around him was suffocating for a moment. Fear was something new. Saguru had been afraid before, when he'd gone up against suspects who still had murder weapons on them and the like, but now everything held new dangers. He found himself seeing figures walking in the shadows of the room that he couldn't see beyond. The shaking hadn't stopped since he'd admitted to himself that he was in over his head.

There was something comforting about the room though, even the car. He couldn't see the white color, but knowing it was there had him feeling safer. This room was a secret place. He wouldn't be hurt here. Those figures in the dark weren't after him. They were just watching, wondering who this new person in their sanctuary was. It was eerie, but not frightening. After a time, Saguru found his eyes closing. There was so much and yet nothing for him to do. He couldn't fight back, but he couldn't hide forever. He'd been ignoring it before but tomorrow he steeled himself to finding a solution for this problem.

Maybe going back home to England wasn't such a bad idea.


	21. Old Friends and Favors

Wo~oh. This story now as a life of it's own ^^  
I have no idea how or when it's going to end. We shall see

_**All characters referenced are from DC episode 96/99**_  
English Episode "Jimmy Kudo Revealed, Part 1"  
Japanese Episode "Caught Up with the Great Detective! 2 Murder Cases!"

* * *

_**Chapter 21: Old Friends and Favors**_

"I thought you'd like it in here. Didn't know you'd like it _that_ much though."

Kaito's voice woke him. Saguru stretched, feeling his side ache from where he'd been sleeping on the crook of the seat, uncompromising under such little weight. Saguru scratched his head, feeling how wild his hair had become. Last night's flight and his odd angle in the car explained that enough. For once, he didn't care how bad he looked.

Eyes still tired, though he had no reason to be, Saguru sat up, opening the car door and missing the sense of being in the warm darkness the room had provided him last night. He rubbed his eyes, seeing the magician come to light in a black outfit, the shirt being the one he'd sleep in last night. It took him only a second to realize that Kaito was wearing it in case the blood happened to seep through the bandages.

"Good morning," Saguru muttered on impulse.

There must have been something wrong with his words because Kaito's easy smile changed to concern the next time Saguru blinked. He'd never seen the magician so opened before, but Saguru was coming to realize that they were simply getting used to being in one another's company and knowing that there weren't any secrets to keep.

"Morning. Any reason you slept in the car?"

"Yeah, I didn't want to see you last night." There was no reason to lie about it. "I'm sorry for yelling at you."

"Doesn't really matter." Kaito reluctantly let his eyes wander around the room before falling back onto him. "Figured everything out, have you?"

"The minute you left." He couldn't smile. Saguru tried, but some part of him was too exhausted to keep it up for more than a moment. He'd never felt so defeated before and he couldn't shake the feeling. "I think I'm going to go back home. To England."

"What?" The magician hadn't been expecting this. The smile that had been on his face was one prepared to put up with the questions he'd assumed he'd have to try and avoid. Saguru wanted to ask them still, but that part of him was buried somewhere he couldn't get to. Asking required energy, and he didn't have any.

"I'll call my mom. It shouldn't be that hard for her to get on a plane and come get me. I'd go alone, but I know how difficult it is to go through customs, let alone when you're a child and everyone's watching you. I should be out of your hair in the next few hours."

"You don't have to leave." Kaito shook his head, looking confused and maybe a little hurt. Saguru wasn't as perceptive as he normally would be, so it was hard to identify the emotion. "I'm sorry. Did I say something last night? I'm sure I did." The magician thought to himself for a heartbeat before starting up again. "I know I told you not to go to my heists." There was some hesitancy in the word, Saguru equally new to the feeling of hearing the Kaito openly admit to what he did. "But I didn't—I'm not kicking you out or anything. Go to them if you want." Kaito shrugged. "Just make sure that they don't see you there all the time or you might be put in danger."

"It's not that." Saguru watched the magician, feeling a glaze over his eyes that blinking couldn't help dissipate. "There's nothing I can do. I don't want to get in your way."

"You're not. Damn it." Kaito ran his fingers though his hair, trying to collect his thoughts, "I was tired last night. If I said anything that gave you the wrong idea, I'm sorry. You're not in the way. I'm still going to find a way to help you. Ai-chan's doing the best she can too. You're not alone, and you don't have to leave."

"Thank you, but it's impossible." He'd reasoned it out himself, taking Shinichi's past actions into consideration. "Even if you find a cure, I've been on television. They'll try to kill me, and I have no way of fighting back. If I go home, it's highly unlikely I'll cross paths with them again. If you can, I'd like the antidote. If you can't, it won't trouble me much to leave things as they are."

"So, you're going to run away? That's you're plan? You've seen how Kudo-kun is fighting them, but you don't even want to try?"

Saguru could hear how angry Kaito was, and the magician not afraid to show it either now that he realized it was Saguru's own foolishness and not his own that was the cause of the sudden announcement. He didn't care. Let everyone be angry with him. Saguru wasn't any good. Even if he tried, Shinichi was a better detective than he. Shinichi had been at it longer and had a much better chance at rectifying their situation. What could he do? He'd already misjudged Kaito badly enough, made light of his own circumstances for far too long. It all showed him how amateurish he was in his execution.

"I'm not... good." He didn't know how else to word it. He wasn't cut out for this. Everything he did so far had been wrong. He was wrong. About absolutely everything. And, maybe he wasn't 'good' in the metaphorical sense of the word either.

"I still don't understand." Kaito shook his head sadly, expression torn between pity and anger. Saguru didn't favor either of them. The magician gave up deciding how he was supposed to feel and sat down on the floor where he bent forward and patted the spot in front of him, "Explain it to me."

"But I have. Kuroba-kun," Saguru took the few steps needed to put him in front of the magician but didn't sit. "I'm not like you. I can't help that. I can't take on trained killers when I, myself, have only a high school education to fight them with. You have talents that lay outside of the school yard, I don't. You know your enemies, I don't. If our positions were switched, you would have been smart enough from the beginning to start over and count your blessings. I was being a fool and thought that- I don't even know what I thought. Neither you nor the police can handle these people, and I _knew_ that. I don't know what I was expecting, but it's clear now that being with you is doing neither of us any good. You can't help me and I can't do anything to help you."

"I never asked for your help, and I never will. Hakuba-kun, this isn't something you can help me with. And I _have_ been helping you."

"With the antidote, yes." Saguru's eyes traveled the room because Kaito's were bothering him. The magician wouldn't look away from him, and it was annoying. He hated being watched. "You've never needed my help for that. According to Ai-kun, you're quite good in notions of advanced science. Ai-kun herself better than you, so really, no one needs me here."

"Okay." Kaito closed his eyes, letting Saguru take in a breath, relaxing his shoulders that he didn't know he'd been tensing. "I still don't understand why you have to leave. If they did find out who you were and went to check if you were still alive, your house would be the first place they would look."

"I know, but I'll have to risk it. It's not as if it would be impossible for them to assume I was someone else if they saw me as a child."

"Why?"

Saguru clenched his fist, the first trickling of some emotion coming to him now. Why did Kaito have to keep asking him for his reasons? It wasn't as if the magician was willing to give out his own. Why did it even matter 'why'? He was still going to go. Kaito knowing why he wanted to go would make no difference.

Kaito must have caught onto his thinking, because he folded his arms in front of him with a sigh, eyes burning into Saguru for a second time and making him wish the damn magician would keep his nosy self away from him.

"You want to know why then? I can't sit here and do nothing! I can't do anything to help you and I can't stop these bastards from ruining my life like they planned to do from the start. Watching you bleed in front of me doesn't help either, and even if I hadn't seen it, I'm not an idiot! I can't stand not being able to do anything..." Saguru shook his head, getting his voice back under control. He felt like crying, but now was not the place or time to do it. He was stronger than that, even if his body and his emotions seemed to be closer to that of his physical self at the moment. "I hate being so powerless. At least at home, I can pretend that everything is alright because even if it's not, there would be nothing I could do to stop it. For once, I wish I were you."

"Hakuba-kun," Kaito picked him but by the back of the shirt as Saguru tried to leave the room. He was placed non-too-gently onto the chair in the corner that had been housing several gadgets before the magician pulled it away. "I know the feeling. Trust me. Running away won't make it better. You're going to wish you didn't do it in time, if you leave now. We're fixing this. Together. Just give me and Ai-chan some time. After that, we'll talk with Kudo-kun. I'm sure that with my skills, we can pull something off to make sure you're safe."

"It's impossible." Saguru stared at the floor while Kaito stood over him. "You can't understand what it's like to be somewhere and not able to help."

"I can. It's happened to me a few times, and someone either has died or has almost died, each time. Hakuba-kun, everyone feels that way at some point. I'm sure you're going to be feeling it a lot more while you're like this, but that's life. Deal with it."

"I've also had about enough of your attitude as I can take. Yes it's life, yes I know this, yes I am going home. I don't want to be here anymore."

"Then I'm going with you."

Saguru raised an eyebrow upward as Kaito watched him in all seriousness.

"People will wonder where you've gone. You can't up and leave here like I can."

"Why not? My dad did it. I'm sure I can come up with some kind of excuse. What? Don't want me coming? Oh yeah, that's right. You can't stand me now, even though before I couldn't get you to leave me alone. Well guess what, the shoes on the other foot now and, like it or not, I'm not letting you get away from me."

"Why?"

Kaito smiled, finally reverting back to the person Saguru knew him as. Kaito was never one to be serious for long, so there was still time to talk some sense into him. Saguru just wanted to be alone. His mother was fine, but Kaito wasn't someone content to let him have his space, even when he wasn't trying to provoke him.

"There. I'm used to being on the receiving end of the questions, not giving them. I'll give you a straight answer this time because I want you to know I'm telling the truth. You're not a bad person, Hakuba-kun, and for some reason I get the feeling that you think you are because you're not able to do some things now. Not having the ability to do something and not doing it are two very different things. Second of which, I hate it when people give up. It ticks me off beyond all reason. For someone like you who should know better, it ticks me off even more."

"Just leave me alone. As you said, it's my problem, and you stalking me will not help me deal with it."

"But having me near you will make it impossible to forget what you're running away from." Kaito folded his arms in front of him. "Deal with it. You can't run and I'll prove it to you."

"If you insist on coming, then watch me. I can go on with my life just fine." Saguru got off the chair, not caring whether the magician was going to be true to his word or not. Kaito didn't sound like he was lying, but he proved he could in the past. Maybe Saguru would get lucky.

Unfortunately, Kaito quickly discovered that his mother was awake and Saguru watched as he ran up the stairs, followed by some raised words and a grinning magician coming down less than fifteen minutes. Saguru took his last piece of toast and bit into it as Kaito's mother and Ai soon entered the kitchen as well.

"Might make things easier on your mom, anyway, now that I'm going." Kaito flipped in several new pieces of bread for himself as he took the chair and sat in it backwards to face him while the magician waited for them to be ready. "You can go with me now and she won't have to come back after just getting home again."

"I don't plan on returning here, so how do you think you'll be able to miss that much school?" Saguru asked off-handedly. "I'm sure your mother won't want to get in trouble along with you for your extended absence."

"I can make up the classes over summer vacation. I think I've already missed enough that they're going to force it on me anyway." Kaito shrugged. "I don't really care either way. I've taken summer classes before."

"Really?" Ai spoke up before Saguru could continue you argument. "For what? You're no idiot and I doubt you've been Kid for that long."

"Nah," Kaito waved a hand at her. "I wouldn't let that get in the way of going to school. It never has before. I had to take the summer classes because I owed an old friend of mine some help. He needed another magician in for one of his stage tricks and the guy he was working with bailed. I spent a good week or two in the United States working with him, so I missed some school. On top of that, Kazumi-san had me miss a week of school soon after that too. He kinda needed someone so," Kaito shrugged again. "I didn't care much."

"So you missed school and had to take summer classes because you were out having fun?" Saguru was surprised at the skepticism in Ai's voice. He didn't see a problem with it. If Kaito wanted to do something, he usually did.

"I had expected to miss it when I went out of the country. When he called me less than a month later and told me he needed me again, we were both surprised. The guy's almost ten years older than me, but mom and I had been close with his mentor because of my dad. The guy had suddenly died, and Kazumi-san had lost his parents at an early age, so he'd been living with him. They needed help. I helped. You can't really turn away from someone when... well, I had to go."

Saguru couldn't hold in a sympatric look. He may not be enjoying Kaito's over-zealous behavior at the moment, but he couldn't help feeling sorry for him again, as he had last night. If this other person had lost someone he considered a father, he had no doubt that Kaito would want to be there for them.

"Motoyasu-san and Kazumi-kun had been close with us for years. If I remember correctly, Kazumi-kun broke a few rules for you, didn't he Kaito?"

"That wasn't my fault." Kaito shot a sour look at his mother. "Kazumi-san didn't need to do that."

"I'm sure you wouldn't have figured it out on your own. You wouldn't be half the magician you are today if he hadn't come by and taught you as Motoyasu-san was teaching him. He was so young at the time. If you ask me, he still looks young. He's doing shows of his own still, isn't he?"

"Yeah. I haven't heard from him since he had that talk with me and I slipped him the idea of getting Nanae-san to contact Mouri-san. He didn't mention what happened so I'm sure Kudo-kun helped him figure out what had happened. I was going to ask about what had been happening with him, but he didn't bring it up, and he was having enough trouble at the funeral that I wasn't going to bother him."

"Kudo-kun?" Ai and Saguru both spoke up at the same time, voices level but reaching a louder pitch when spoken together. Kaito laughed.

"Yeah. I told you that Kazumi-san's mentor had died, but we knew he was killed. He asked me to help him so I told him to ask Mouri-san for help. I had to figure that Kudo-kun would be with him, and because Kazumi-san had helped me with a little favor last time, he knew who they were."

"Why in the world would you get an acquaintance of yours to meet with Kudo-kun?"

Kaito rolled his eyes. "They were magicians, not thieves, you idiot. What harm could it do? I made sure that Nanae-san had a reason to contact him anyway."

Saguru sat back, feeling foolish. Of course there shouldn't be a problem with Kaito seeking Shinichi's help, but that didn't change that fact that Saguru found it strange. For a second, he wondered if Shinichi knew if that particular case he worked on had been fed to him by the sneak.

"Out of curiosity," Ai spoke up again, seeming interesting in what the magician had to say. "What favor was it that you asked of this person?"

"You mean, did I turn him into a criminal because I needed help? Of course not. I just told him he needed to palm a card for me. A magician as skilled as him..." Kaito spoke his next works quietly with a dark look at his mother, "_considering he taught me how to perfect it..._he would have noticed when I acted. He just had to pretend to be surprised. I took care of the stealing. If it's any consolation, Kudo-kun found me out, and I had to give it back. Couldn't have been what I was looking for anyway."

Kaito's eyes widened, and he sat back as well, though the others in the room hadn't missed his words or his sudden shift in demeanor.

"What is it that you're looking for?" Saguru asked, trying to make the question sound light.

"Nothing. Forget I said anything. Anyway, you're going to need to get on the plane with me anyway. You're mom can't bring you home. A friend of a friend has agreed to come with us and let you borrow a passport. The thing is, like it or not, you're going to have to go as a girl. If you'd give me more time, I could fake one for you. As it stands, I'm sure you and Kudo-kun could find some way to sneak you back home if you run off to him, so this will have to do."

That successfully derailed Saguru's train of thought. "I am not going to be passing as a girl."

"You don't really have much choice in the matter. Ayano's a girl and it's not like we can change her passport. Nanae-san is actually going to come with us so that they don't have to check into the passport details. She's getting the tickets as we speak and Kazumi-san's going to watch Ayano so that we can go."

"Again, I am _not_ going as a girl."

"Then how are you expecting to leave, you're own passport?"

Saguru was about to speak up and say that he would try the drug again, but that was to be used only in cases of emergency, and this certainly didn't qualify. He was being selfish. Let him be though. Kaito would have to return sooner or later, and he could get used to life in England again, growing up if he must, if Ai couldn't find an antidote. That still didn't mean that he would be traveling as a female.

He thought for a little longer. He certainly wasn't going to wait. He had to guess it would take a while to get a fake passport made. It wasn't like an I.D. Even if it was, Saguru didn't think he was willing to go that far past the law in order to get home. So really, there wasn't any option.

"Very well, but I will not stand for any teasing while on the trip. I will not wear girl's clothes and I will be diligently ignoring you during the plane ride."

"Noted," Kaito laughed. "Thought that a little insult to your pride would get you back to normal. I don't know what happened, like I said _several times_ already, but you've been acting weird. I apologized, didn't I? It's the same as it was before."

"Yeah, well." Saguru spoke his next words softer. "Maybe I was being a fool before. Tell your friend that I'll pay her back for the tickets."

"She's got... maybe you can pay her back for yours. I'll pay for hers and mine."

"Kuroba-kun. You don't have much money. I've seen some of the stuff you buy to get through heists. You're riding on little more than pocket change to me. I can pay. If it eases your guilt, you can remain behind and this won't be an issue."

"Or you can just shut-up and go along with it. I said I'd pay for myself and Nanae-san, so don't worry about it. I have some money still."

"I've been living in this house for weeks now. Your mother works afternoons on the weekdays and you go to school. What money could you have to spare for a plane trip? It's not cheep, especially last minute flights. I am the one going home and, if I can't shake you, you then are my responsibility. I can at least pay for your ticket to repay your mother for letting me stay."

Saguru bowed his head to the woman. She smiled back with a small bow of her own. Saguru would miss her, but he had his own mother to go home to. This house and this family weren't his to intrude upon anymore. It wasn't so much that he wanted to get away from Kaito, more like he wanted to stop owing the magician and his family so much. He disliked it. That, and he couldn't stand Kaito any longer. The teen didn't follow logic. Kaito didn't run from danger. He went against the police only to get shot at by those worse than Kid was. He helped him out even though Saguru was on the side of those police officers that he was so fixated on, as Kid, to have running in circles. For heaven's sake, Kaito and Aoko were best friends. The idiot went over to the Inspector's house on a weekly bases before he'd come along. That wasn't how someone spending their nights as a thief was supposed to act, and trying to figuring out why left Saguru with more questions than before he'd started.

He just wanted a break from it all. Just a small one. He'd been dealing with enough over the past weeks that something was bound to tear him apart if he didn't do something that he _could_ control.

Before Kaito could fight back his claim, Ai grabbed onto his shirt and shook her head when the magician turned to face her. "His family has the money for it and yours doesn't. This isn't something that needs to be repaid and you haven't asked for it. I know it's hard for you to except something like this, but put up and deal with it. You." Ai waited until he was facing her and the magician had turned to sulk. "As much as you want to run away, distance can never separate you from _them._ You'd better watch yourself when you go home. If either of you are caught, I'm sure they wouldn't have a hard time covering up the death of a child and a known fugitive."

"As if I'd get caught," Kaito growled under his breath. Saguru nodded at Ai. He'd already come to understand that these people were dangerous and it was all too possible that they knew who he was and were watching his house in England. It was also possible that they weren't. If he hadn't gotten a good look at them, they didn't know his face well either. He held onto her warning anyway. He was not going to misjudge his situation any longer.

Ai pushed herself away from the table to where Kaito's mother had already started cooking. She moved the chair over to the stove where he could smell unions cooking.

"She'll be here after breakfast, just so you know. I'm sure you don't have much to get ready before we leave." Saguru wasn't at all disappointed that Kaito's words sounded just as disheartened as his own.

He sat back and waited while the girls cooked, watching Ai out of the corner of his vision every now and then. She either didn't know he was looking at her or didn't care. As much as he'd heard from her about who she was, he was surprised to find her so happy here. Ai didn't seem the type of person to let people in. She'd pushed him away enough to get her point across. Yet she'd accepted Kaito nearly on sight, and his mother even sooner. For a while, he thought it was because they were both criminals, in a way. They both had secrets. But then, why befriend him after all this time? Ai hadn't spoken harshly to him, even though he'd spoken against Kaito. She's struck back at him in the past for that reason alone, but now she seemed to accept him. He couldn't understand how it was that someone, so like himself in heritage and attitude, could be so attached to the idiot who was currently playing - by the sound of the beeping - Tetris on his phone.

After the food, they all sat at the table. Saguru watched Kaito for a second before giving in.

"If you're going with me, don't you need to pack?"

"I'm always packed" Kaito mumbled, still sounding defeated even though he was getting what he wanted. "With what I do, I've always got a bag stashed away if I need it. You should go get your stuff though."

"I have clothes at home. I don't need to bring anything. If my mother gave them away, I can easily get new ones."

"Hm."

No one said anything after that. There wasn't much to say. Saguru was the one leaving them. He was the one breaking apart the click they had made together, through whatever circumstances had come about. It was like leaving behind his own family, this one closer to him than most of his actual blood relatives. When Kaito finally went back home, Saguru would lose his last ties to them. Secretly, he wished that if he got himself back together, Kaito would bring him back. But that was selfish. He couldn't do that. Not to them. Not again. If he were to come back, he'd do it to help Shinichi. If he were to be killed... he didn't even want to think about that. Not now, when most of his confidence was gone and all he could think about were the worse possible outcomes.

There was a knock at the door that made him jump. Whoever it was didn't wait for one of the Kurobas to answer it before they came in of their own accord. There was some chatter between at least two people, one male and one female, before a man in his twenties walked into the kitchen, hair in Kaito's own fashion but cut short enough to mark an obvious difference.

"Been a while." The man leaned against the door and started at them. "I see you've been busy."

"As if you'd need to come here to know that." Kaito did what he usually did, and his mood changed significantly. He stood up and shook the man's hand. "Kazumi-san, I didn't think you'd come along. I thought you were going to stay home and watch Ayano-chan."

"Alas, I couldn't. Staying in that big house alone with only Ayano is too boring. I thought I'd spend some time here until Nanae-san came back. Also heard you were heading out of the country again." The man raised an eyebrow and Kaito shook his hand.

"I told you I won't. That was a one-time-only thing, and that was only because I had a keen friend of mine there. Besides, it has nothing to do with that."

Saguru's eyes widened. This man knew. After Kaito had shot down the idea of Kazumi being a criminal, he had come to think of the man as another person used by Kaito in his games with the police. But this man _knew _that Kaito was Kid, though he didn't use as many words. He had just offered his help to the younger magician too.

"I thought you'd ask if you needed me. I just had to be sure." Kazumi turned to the others in the kitchen with a funny look on his face. "I'm not going to have to help watch the other children as well, am I?"

"No, the boy's coming with me. Ai-chan," Kaito nodded at the girl. "Will be staying here. Don't treat her like a child, neither of us like that very much."

"Got it." Kazumi didn't even ask why. Saguru couldn't understand it. This man was so much older than Kaito and yet he was taking orders from his as if it were the opposite. Looking at the two of them next to each other, it was almost like seeing Kaito years from now when he was an adult.

Kazumi noticed his glances and smiled. "Yeah, we look alike, don't we? That's why I used him in my show a few months ago as my double. He needed a little make-up, but that was the easy part. Having sensei help was impossible and Yuji-kun was too inexperienced to do the performance, even if he hadn't canceled on me."

Kaito grinned though Saguru couldn't get a good look at it because of the angle he was at. "That was fun."

"Yes, it was. Again though, if you had stuck to the script, I wouldn't have had to worry about those very irate patrons in the front row."

"The rest of them liked it."

Kazumi laughed, finding Kaito's lighthearted recollection of his actions entertaining. Saguru found it quite the opposite. If he'd gone to a magic show, which he never had, though he'd been meaning to after Kid came along, he'd want to enjoy it, not be victim to one of Kaito's practical jokes.

"Enough reminiscing." An older woman with short brunette hair parted off to the side and large blue eyes walked in, purse dangling down her arm. "You caught me at a good time for now, but I have to be back by tomorrow night for a performance. If you'd given me some warning, I may have been able to get better tickets." The woman handed two slips of paper to Kaito as he looked them over.

"Three hours. We have some time."

"It's not a good habit to arrive late. And a lousy one if you plan on making a flight out. Hello, Chikage-chan." Kaito's mother and this new woman nodded to one another.

"Right." Kaito placed the tickets in his pocket and quickly kissed his mother on the cheek. "I'll see you when I see you."

"Take care of yourself Kaito, and call me if you need anything."

"Will do." Kaito saluted her with two fingers and a wink. "Ai-chan, I've got Yakamoto's number in my room. Call him if you need to get in."

"You assume I'm still going to try and help even with you gone?"

"You were helping before I told you that I knew what you were doing and had time to help you, weren't you? It's not any different now."

"As long as your mother can drive me back, I have no problem with it." Ai sighed, looking unhappy now that Kaito was leaving. "Try not to be gone too long. As much as you think it won't, your absence will cause problems here. Be gone too long and the school will take action. Not to mention that little friend of yours will have her daddy snooping around."

"I know. Oh, right, Aoko." Kaito smacked his forehead. "I forgot to call her."

"I'll inform them that you're on a trip out of town for some reason or another," Kaito's mother assured him. "Don't worry about it."

"Thanks." Kaito went back and kissed her again. "You're the best, Mom. Really."

"If that's true, why do you keep lying to her?" The words stumbled out of his mouth before Saguru had time to comprehend them. Kaito scowled, placing a hand on his mother's shoulder.

"I'm not anymore, thanks to you. I talked to her last night, but you wouldn't know that because you wanted to do things your own way. Well, I'm not letting you do that anymore." Kaito placed a hand on Ai's head as she gave him a dirty look that didn't hold any anger. "Ai-chan knows too. Does it really matter?"

"I guess not." Saguru got off his chair and headed out of the room, turning the corning and spotting a young girl, maybe a year younger than he was, with brunette hair lighter than her mother's, held back by a headband. She was currently leaning against the wall and looking as if she were going to fall asleep. When Saguru faced her, her eyes shot open and she back away from him before smiling and offering her hand.

"Hi," she said enthusiastically, more so egged on by lack of sleep than any excitement. Saguru nodded his head in reply. She smiled more before leaning back against the wall and letting her legs collapse below her so that she could sleep. Kazumi turned and picked her up in his arms.

"I'll make sure she gets some sleep."

"Thank you Kazumi-san. I should return in a few hours."

Kaito walked out and he saw the magician shoot the older one a smile.

"What?" Saguru asked, curious.

Kaito shook his head. "Ayano-chan had been kidnapped and nearly murdered. I was wondering how Nanae-san was dealing with it. Seems she thinks of you like a son, just like you think of her as a mother."

"Yes," Kazumi's smile matched Kaito's. "And I appreciate it. If you need anything again, feel free to ask. After what you've done for me, I feel my little look-the-other-way trick wasn't much of a repentance. Then again. I know you hate it if someone feels indebted to you, so let's just say I'm a friend offering my help again if you need it in the future."

"I'll think about it."

"Meaning this will be the last time I hear from you for a while, at least for business. You're going to need help sooner or later, and when the time comes, I hope you don't fear of asking for it. Everyone needs help sometimes, even you."

Kaito shook his head again, smile more strained. "No."

"Very well. Any reason then, Kaito-kun. I don't see much of you these days. There were times when I couldn't shake you before, as we were growing up. Don't let your duties get in the way of your friendship, if you can help it. You have so little of them."

"Here we go again." Kaito rolled his eyes. "Who cares if I don't want to be friends with the whole world? I'll come to you if I need you. What has gotten you so worried? You weren't nagging me like this before."

"I don't know." Kazumi's eyes became vicious, easing up seconds later. "I'm just worried about you."

"Don't be. I have... I have people who know. I'll be fine. You worry about taking care of Nanae-san and Ayano-chan."

They nodded to one other in terse agreement. Both of them smiling at the same time as Kaito turned and headed out the door with Saguru following close behind, Nanae having already headed towards a small car waiting outside.

"What was that about?" Saguru asked, once Kazumi was no longer in sight.

"Nothing, just a friend giving some good advice. Maybe one day I'll learn to listen."


	22. Running Away

Small chapter, I know, sorry ^^;

Okay, I know very little/nothing, about the UK. Anything I put here was snippets I found on the Internet to make the story sound more real.  
That is it. I may even be wrong at some points.

**English, again, is in bold. I don't know how often that's going to come up, but I'm reminding everyone 0_-**

* * *

_**Chapter 22: Running Away**_

During the car ride Saguru was subject to Kaito's every whim in the back seat. Somehow the magician had gotten a wig that was almost a replica of Ayano's hair color and style. That didn't take long to put on but the makeup and contacts were annoying. Saguru's dominate foreign features had to be hidden if he was going to pass for a girl who was all Japanese. That involved lots of makeup on his hands and face, along with Kaito having too much fun trying to get him into girl's clothes.

Saguru eventually relented on a dark purple t-shirt with ruffled short sleeves and a pair of pants. He was in no way going to be wearing either skirt or dress and he made his point perfectly clear after Kaito, for the dozenth time, tried to get him into one or the other.

"You're no fun."

"I'm not trying to be."

Kaito tilted his head. "You've _tried_ to be fun? Where was I?"

"Kuroba-kun, shut up and leave me alone. It's not as if I invited you along. I don't even know why you're coming when you have so many obligations here. You're being an idiot."

"At least I don't have to _try_ to be fun."

Saguru shook his head. He was not about to fight Kaito back on it. If he reversed the claim, the stupid magician would only try and entertain him to prove that he was more fun than Saguru. The thought of dodging that predictable outcome was nicer than the thought of letting the magician have his way. He'd rather be content at the moment than the victor.

Kaito didn't want to remain quiet though.

"You know, I always thought you lived in London."

Saguru raised an eyebrow. "England is a large area. What made you think I was from the city?"

Kaito shrugged. "I don't know. You have the money and you're a Sherlock Holmes addict after all. I thought that's where you'd live."

Saguru laughed quietly to himself. "It's not as if I couldn't reach it in an hour or so if I wished. I don't see you living in Paris."

The woman in the front seat giggled, her subdued nature voiding any negative connotations it may have held. "Sorry, Kaito-kun. That does make sense."

Kaito shut up after that, leaning back in the seat and watching with world pass by out the window. Saguru smiled. It was kind of nice to win an argument with the magician. He had so many trick that it was practically an impossible feat. The rarity of his victory also made it more satisfying, though he wasn't appreciating as much as he would have if he didn't have so much on his mind that was bothering him, and would remain to bother him for what looked to be the rest of his life.

The airport was tedious when they arrived. Waiting couldn't be helped. It may have been the last month or two of fall, but there were tourists flying in all the time and the airport had flights to other parts of Japan too, so the place was packed.

He had no worries about getting on the plane. Kaito could lie to an experienced military man and get away with it, so he was sure the attendants at the airport would pose no real obstacle. It wasn't like there was anything to look into any way. He was a child and no one would think a child would be impersonating another one. He still had to pay for his ticket.

He went through the line half-asleep, hearing the yells and conversations blur around him into one big jumble of noise that helped his brain from doing more than was necessary. It was like white-noise to his overworked mind.

When they were ready to board the plane after waiting in three different lines and handing over their identification and going through the security checks, Saguru had to take out his watch and see that three hours had already past, even though to his mind it felt like nothing more than thirty minutes.

"Come on, Hakuba-kun. Wake up. Keep walking around like a zombie, and I'll give you an appropriate nickname for it."

Saguru looked up at the magician as they exited the platform, seeing worry there instead of agitation.

"I'm tired," he half-lied under his breath. Something was tugging at him, making everything more difficult than it used to be so that he wanted to crawl into a comfortable bed and hibernate for the next few months. So, in truth, he wasn't lying. He was tired, even though he'd slept.

"Get some more sleep on the plane. We have a few hours to kill anyway." Kaito turned away from him, but Saguru could still feel he was being watched. The magician was too over protective sometimes. The cracks he'd given him to 'loosen up' must have been taken out of someone else's book because the magician certainly didn't follow what he preached.

He wasn't doing anything but going back home, where he could rest and look at things from a distance so he could figure out what he had to do. Being at Kaito's was too hectic, and too many things kept happening in so short a time. He wished the magician had listened to him and stayed back, but he couldn't win. He could never truely win. Kaito wasn't going to make this trip the relaxing one that he was looking for, so he found it pointless as they climbed the ramp to the plane. He'd end up back in Japan soon if things continued the way they had been. Maybe stay at a hotel. He had enough money to live at one for a week at least. The welcomed peace was something that was very appealing to him at that moment.

Even on such short noticed, somehow the woman had gotten them three seats on the right hand side, one near the window. The magician paused and offered it to him. "I don't really care where I sit. I'm probably going to fall asleep too. You want it?"

Saguru nodded, accepting the offer. He didn't want to be near other people right now.

"Do you mind the aisle?" Kaito turned to the older woman while Saguru sat himself comfortably in the seat and pulled the blind down so that the sun wasn't in his eyes.

"It's fine. I prefer it. I don't like feeling crowded."

He felt as Kaito sat down next to him and rested his arm on the armrest. Saguru cracked an eye open to watch as the magician clicked his seat belt on and rested his head against the headrest, more towards him then the woman, and closed his eyes to sleep. Saguru closed his own eyes, slouching some so that he could lie back more comfortably before falling asleep himself.

He slept through the entirety of the plane ride, waking up just as the stewardess got on the microphone and told everyone to depart in an orderly fashion. Kaito was next to him, still asleep, and the woman was shaking his shoulder to try and get him to wake up.

"That won't work," Saguru said in a monotone voice. He turned to the magician. "Kaito-kun, Aoko-kun is here and she wouldn't want to see you sleeping on the floor again."

He was actually surprised when the same thing worked on the magician twice. Kaito opened his eyes, blinking around as if searching for any sign of the girl that Saguru had spoken of.

"Get up. The plane landed and we're getting off."

"Oh." Kaito unbuckled his belt and stretched. "That was fast."

"No," the woman said with a kind voice. "You just slept the whole way."

The magician gave her a smile in return, standing up and helping her get to her feet. "Yeah, sorry about that. I guess it must have been boring without anyone to talk to."

"I brought a book. And anyway, I took a nap too, so it didn't bother me."

They departed the flight and Saguru found himself mashed in a new crowd of people, this time more closely resembling him, though Ipswich was as popular as Tokyo and there were foreigners littered throughout the area.

"Thank you for coming with, Nanae-obasan. I'm sorry I called you out on such short noticed."

"It was no trouble, Kaito-kun. It's been a while since I've seen you, so it was a pleasure and a nice change of pace since Kazumi has been throwing himself into work. If you need me again for a return trip, all you have to do is call and Kazumi or I will come."

"Thank you. I mean it." Kaito gave her a warm smile that told how close they were to one another. Saguru had to admit, he'd been feeling a connection with the magician's mother that bordered on the same emotions, almost like a secondary parent.

"Of course. I'll see you later then." Nanae turned around to find the platform she needed to get to for her return trip.

Saguru didn't look back at Kaito before he started walking out. He knew where he was. This was his home. It felt nice to be back.

After the press of bodies, the soft breeze outside that smelled slightly of machinery was like that first splash of water when you jump into a pool on a hot day. He breathed in the air, letting himself enjoy the few minutes of peace.

"So," Kaito looked around. "I didn't think about how we'd get to your house."

"My mother will pick us up, so there's no need to worry. First though, we're taking a trip down the street." Saguru started walking, looking around until he found a nice, small restaurant two blocks away. Kaito was behind him, taking in the sights. He had to think that the magician didn't travel much with the way his eyes sparkled at every little thing that Saguru considered average.

He pushed opened the door and entered the small eatery, going for the washrooms. Kaito follow, his eyes going to every new person he spotted and a few of them looking back to watch the foreigner.

"Here." Once in the bathroom, Saguru handed over the wig and took out his clothes that he'd been forced out of in the car. The grey shirt with some bird insignia resting on the left side of his chest and darker cargo shorts felt great. He took off the makeup and tried to fix his hair as best as he could. "I disliked that greatly."

"No one really cared if you were a girl or a boy." Kaito shrugged. "I didn't really think about it."

"Because you don't really care what gender you are. I'm sure you've dressed up as a woman before and fraternized with men. Well I'm sorry, but that's not for me."

"As if," Kaito blew out a breath. "I'd never go that far."

Saguru shoved the feminine clothes into the bag he'd brought his other outfit in. It had fit on the plane, and all Kaito had was a backpack, so that hadn't had to go through baggage claim. He took a second to sneer at the clothes, debating whether or not to throw them out. Kaito snatched them out of his grip before he could decide and held onto them.

"First off, the wig's mine. Second, don't waste clothes like that. Ai might want them, or Ayano-chan."

"Now that I'm thinking about it, where did you get those clothes? I'm certain I didn't buy the pants or the purple shirt."

"Nanae-san picked them up on her way. All I had to do was give her your size. She's going to return what I couldn't get you into. It was easy." Kaito shrugged.

Saguru was done trying to control the actions of those around him, especially Kaito. The magician would do what he wanted whether Saguru had a say in the matter or not. So he eyed the bag containing the clothes with slightly more resentment before taking out his cell and phoning his mother as he left the restaurant.

There were benches outside and Saguru sat in one while the call went through. It took a while but his mother picked up.

"_Hello?"_

"Hello, Mother. I'm back. I apologize for calling on such short noticed. Kuroba-kun is with me. I just... want to be home. Can you pick us up?"

_"Where are you?_" He could hear his mother shuffling things around. "_Did something happen?_"

"No, not really."

He waited for his mother to say something else because he had nothing more to say, and he needed to know she was on her way. After a minute and the sound of a door closing, she got back to him. "_I'll be there in thirty minutes." _

"Thank you, Mother. I'll see you then." He gave her the address of the restaurant they were at so they wouldn't need to go back to the airport and wait in the mess of people who were waiting for rides of their own.

"_Bye." _

"Goodbye."

Saguru put the phone back into his pocket and watched Kaito come over and sit on the bench next to him, shivering violently. The magician was only wearing his black t-shirt and pants though the weather was below 10 degrees Celsius _(AN: 50 F)_. Saguru hadn't had a coat to bring, since it was 25 degrees _(AN: 77 F)_ in Japan and he hadn't thought to buy one, so he'd brought two shirts.

"I didn't think to warn you about the temperature difference here. I'm sorry."

"No big deal." Kaito tried to close himself in tighter, still shivering. Saguru really wasn't that cold, but he was used to dealing with worse than this and he'd be in Japan long enough to know it didn't get very cold out east.

"You know, for someone with money you sure live in the middle of nowhere."

"My father and mother are very different people." He had nothing more to say about it. With his parents, it was like fire and ice. "Besides, my mother had been living here before she moved to Japan. She met my father at a café while she was attending college. She's often told me that she hated it in Tokyo almost as much as she came to hate my father. He wasn't—he wasn't always the way he is now."

"What? Spineless?"

"Yeah." Saguru looked away. "It's hard to deal with constant disapproval. He and my mother had been in love, once. That was fine. When I came along, things got complicated. People did whatever they could to try and break my parents apart. Mother was fine. My father crumbled. If not for her not owning her own house at the time, I would have grown up here instead."

"He wasn't all that bad."

Saguru looked up, seeing the magician as he watched the traffic in front of them but wasn't really seeing it. "He decided to keep you after all. I'm sure he could have left you with your mother even though he was better off. He must have had to fight for you."

"At least he was willing to fight for one of us then." Saguru couldn't see that as a positive though. "It wasn't like he raised me. I was something he kept secret from the world. I was raised by Baaya more than him. She's like family to me, though we share no blood. It would have been better if he hadn't kept me."

"Maybe. You're such a cynic. I have to guess you got that from hating the world and wishing you were somewhere else, like half the children in the world do at that age."

"Shut up."

"Can't say I ever dreamed of anything like that... but Aoko did."

Saguru stopped his sulking long enough to raise an eyebrow. He thought he was going to get preached at for complaining. "She did?"

"Yeah, after her mom died. She'd talk about going overseas all the time, in secret. Waiting for her father to find out she was missing, so he'd come get her and they could be happy somewhere else. Once, she even ran away for real." Kaito laughed. "Scared the hell out of me and everyone else. I thought she'd really gotten on a boat and was gone forever."

"Where'd she go?"

"She never told me. She was gone since the time school let out until sometime the next afternoon. Her dad was so upset. We'd all gone out looking for her for hours."

"And you say that with a smile." Saguru raised himself up more so he wasn't curled up into a ball anymore. The wind was cold but it was hard to have a conversation with someone when you couldn't look at them. "You were happy she was gone that long?"

"No, not at all. Like I said, it scared the hell out of me. But when she came back, her dad was so happy he wouldn't let her go. We were only nine or ten at the time, so it was scary to think of a child out on the streets. We couldn't get Aoko to stop crying. She felt so bad for what she did. She must have known how worried we were. She wouldn't stop apologizing..." Kaito paused, closing his eyes. "But she didn't let herself acknowledge that we all cared about her before that, because we couldn't be there for her all the time. I think most of that fear was that she thought she was being secluded from everything. Even now, she's afraid of getting hurt."

"And you're hurting her."

Kaito winced, drawing in closer to himself. "Yeah, I know. And trust me, I hate it. So I can't let her know. I'm fully aware that I'm hurting her in other ways, but letting her know the things that you do... I'd be afraid of what would happen to her after. I mean, I'd tell her if it was only me that I got hurt, but she's not the kind of girl to get over deception. She clings to it, like a starving animal. You have no idea how long that girl can hold a grudge."

"I can imagine. She's a lot like you."

Kaito blinked at him, but his weary eyes didn't hold the explanations the magician wanted. It wasn't something he could put into words. Aoko and Kaito were the same on levels that he couldn't understand. He didn't have to know about their pasts to know that they were both the all-or-nothing type. Damaged was the word. He'd seen criminals thrive on the same emotions. They lose someone and their determined to exact their revenge, even if it kills them, or kills who they were. Kaito and Aoko were like that, but in a different way. An emotional way. If either of them were to betray the other, there would be irreversible consequences on the other because they clung to each other so tightly. To any of their real friends. Saguru saw it in Kazumi, too. Both magicians had the same bond. Again, it wasn't something he could easily explain.

"I'll take your word for it. But I think I'd wish she weren't if that were true."

"You both hold onto pain. It's like a crutch but it also acts as a drive for you. It's dangerous, for both of you. I can't helped though. I don't know what can. Go to therapy."

"Tsh. You go to therapy."

"Bite me."

"If you insist."

Kaito actually came at him and Saguru jumped aside to make sure the magician didn't follow up on the command. "Act your age!"

"Then you act yours," Kaito said with a grin. Saguru rolled his eyes.

"You're impossible."

"Thank you. And if I'm like Aoko, you're like Ai-chan."

Saguru settled himself back down, questioning the magician without words. He'd thought the two of them were alike, but that was before he'd really gotten to know her. He didn't consider it any longer. "How so?"

"You both expect the worse from everyone around you. You both are grouchy as hell when you want to be. And you both are looking for something that is right in front of you but you won't accept it. If there was a choice between doing things the easy way or the hard way, you'd both go out of the way to make things as difficult for yourselves as you could."

"I do not, and Ai-kun is not foolish enough to inconvenience herself in such a childish way either."

"Maybe I didn't explain it the right way." Kaito looped an arm around the back of the bench. "You both challenge yourselves when you don't have too. Does that make sense? There are some differences. Ai-chan's seen more than you have. I don't know what, but it's made her wary. You don't have the same hesitations she does. That doesn't make your other similarities vanish."

"If anything, I'll acknowledge that we're both realists."

"Cynics."

"Realists."

"Is there a difference?"

He didn't want to fight anymore so he shut up, letting the magician have his way. It wasn't long after that before his mother drove up in a new car. She had a taste for changing it up every few years. This new model was a dark green Ford Focus with a faint shimmer under the coat.

"**Saguru, I didn't think I'd be seeing you so soon**."

"**It's not something you should be complaining about.**" He got into the front seat while Kaito took in the fact that everything in the car was reversed before getting in the seat behind him.

"Don't worry about it. My mother just favors American cars over ours." Saguru looked at his mother with lidded eyes. "I thought you were done with the fetish."

"**Oh, come on, Saguru. It's just so much fun to be different. Besides, I'm used to driving these cars now. You know, I stayed with your aunt for a few months this year. I love the ****S****tates!**"

"**Yes, well they're quaint enough but Americans can be eccentric. My last trip there wasn't as enjoyable.**"

"**So the food doesn't taste as good and they all like to dress in outrageous outfits, who cares? It so much fun there! I feel like going back some time soon. Want to join me?**"

"**Maybe. Let me deal with Suffolk first, then I debate whether or not to try for anything more radical.**"

"**Fine.**"

"**Hey, can I come with if you do go?**" Kaito piped up from the back seat, the magician's accent distracting him.

"**Sure, why not? The more the merrier.**" Saguru wished his mother wasn't smiling so much at the prospect. That was one trip he wouldn't be going on then. "**Out of curiosity though, why are you here, Kaito?**"

"**Because I wanted to be here.**" The magician's grin lit up. "**And I have to make sure that Hakuba does not get in trouble while he is not with me.**"

His mother laughed while he ignored the magician and rolled down his window, enjoying the breeze. They were driving quickly down Main. It wouldn't take them long to get home. Martlesham wasn't that far from the city, though he didn't miss all the other cars that were on the road. The closer they got to home, the less there would be.

A few suburbs later and plenty of time spent listening to the radio babble on about useless things with some good music spread throughout the commercial breaks, and they hit Eagle Road. Saguru sighed with a smile, spotting their house on the corner.

"Wow. You're house is kinda small."

"I told you" he spoke to Kaito, watching the dark brown of the garage rise over the car as his mother pulled in, spotting the old boxes that she had never unpacked or didn't have room for. "My mother and father are different."

"The flowers are pretty."

"Thank you, Kaito." His mother got out of the car and he followed, walking around to the front door. They literally had a white-picket fence around their house where his mother grew light-blue hydrangea bushes. Lean up against the house were a variety of Tulips, Morning Glories, Cosmos, and any other flower that was brightly colored and caught her attention. He thought it made her house look like something out of a fairy tale, but he'd yet to say it to his mother's face.

And Kaito was wrong, at least in his opinion. His mother's house was two stories and they had a large basement that held a bedroom, another full bathroom, a living room, and the laundry room. There two bedrooms upstairs and another on the first floor, in the opposite direction of the kitchen, near the bathroom. A large sized family could live there peacefully, and here it was only his mother, and him, when he came to visit. If anything, he thought it was too big.

His mother took out the keys, holding the screen door open with her shoulder. "Kaito, you can have any of the free rooms you want but mine is the one on the first floor. There are two more upstairs and one downstairs."

"Thank you, I think I'll take one of the ones upstairs."

"Then I'm staying downstairs," Saguru followed his mother in, slipping off his shoes and settling into the couch in front of the flat screen TV.

"Avoiding me?"

He sighed, eying the magician testily. "Yes."

"Fine, fine. It's your house after all. If you want to sleep upstairs, I can have the basement."

"Don't worry about it."

"Saguru usually sleeps downstairs anyway." His mother slipped off her coat and stared at Kaito with worried eyes. "You're not going to be wearing that out again, are you?"

"I didn't know I needed a coat."

"Then we'll go shopping tomorrow. Saguru, I'm going to make some lunch. What do you want?"

"I don't care."

His mother looked at him as if he'd just spouted one of the most impossible things in the world. He smiled back at her. "Fine. I'm not that hungry. Can I just have a roast beef sandwich and some crisps?"

"Crisps?" Kaito raised an eyebrow and looked down at him from behind the sofa.

"Chips."

"Ah."

Kaito looked around the room. Saguru's mother had special tastes. There was a small chandelier hanging over the glass table in front of him, as well as thick blue curtains to let in the outside light, hanging from the large window to his right, bunching up on the beige carpet where they were too long. There was a table over there with a laptop on it and a cabinet where he knew his mother kept snacks for when she was typing, along with all the filing that needed to be done. The kitchen was to his left and connected to the living room, showing off the dark marble counter in the shape of an 'L' and a oval Oak table with four chairs, two set near another smaller window for when there were guests. There was also a table somewhere behind him, near the door, where there was a mirror and a vase of fresh flowers his mother liked to keep. He couldn't complain about being uncomfortable here.

"Kaito, do you want anything?"

"I guess I'll have what he's having." The magician sat next to him, clearly uncomfortable though curious all the same.

"Sorry for snapping at you earlier. You did let me accommodate myself at your place, so feel free to roam here. Please though, I don't want to think right now. Try not to..."

"Bother you?"

"Yes."

"I won't. I see why you'd want to come back her. Home is so different."

"Neither place is really home to me."

"You know, Hakuba-kun, that's kind of sad."

"No thinking, remember? No conversation any deeper than asking what he weather will be like tomorrow."

"Fine, I'll try. That's the most I can promise."

"It's enough."

"I'm sorry."

He looked over at the magician, turning away from the program he wasn't really watching. "For what?"

"For not having a home or a life like you. You weren't used to the way I live, and I pushed you too far, put you through too much at once. I see why you'd want to get away from it for a while and want to relax."

"Kuroba-kun, that was in no way the problem. I'm the problem. I just need some time alone."

"Okay."

"And one more thing..."

Kaito nodded, more withdrawn now that the magician was somewhere new and experiencing new things. Saguru had to make sure they did this more often. If new experiences made Kaito stop being his obnoxious self, then maybe he should expose them to him more often. "You're also here. So you get to take a break, too. I don't want to hear about Kid showing up in the U.K."

"That would be fun."

Saguru shook his head at the magician's smile and Kaito widened it before continuing, "But it's your roof and your rules. I try and refrain from stealing anything."

"You need the break too, even if you don't admit it. Now let me watch television in peace."

Kaito shut up, still grinning at him. The commercial changed in that instant to that of a jeweled necklace that was being sold by a shopping network. Saguru decided not to take it as a foreshadowing sign of doom.


	23. Restless

Sorry about this. There were some computer troubles  
The next chapter will be up soon to make up for it ^^

* * *

_**Chapter 23: Restless**_

In the end, Kaito and his mother ended up watching TV with him. It wasn't that bad, though every now and then Kaito asked them was a certain word meant. Saguru was almost afraid that Kaito would bring some of the alternative words that he used in England, back to Japan and tease him for it. He'd learned most of his English at a young age while living with his father, so he had never personally been ridiculed for it.

If he went back to Japan. He liked it at home already.

After a movie about some couple that had to overcome physical odds in order to be together, his mother got up to start cooking. He had never helped her before, though the magician did ask if there was anything he could do.

His mother had declined and left the room. That left him and Kaito together while he viewed the next program, wishing there was something on besides romances.

"You're house is nice."

He didn't mind the conversation being brought up when the characters covertly kissed on the back porch so the girl's father wouldn't discover them. It was all very boring.

"I like it here. It's not as busy here as it is in Tokyo. If my mother is so keen on us going shopping tomorrow, as I still need clothes, we can drive around some. I'd hardly deny you a sight-seeing tour when you've never visited before."

"That would be cool. Are you sure you don't mind?"

"Not much. There's nothing spectacular around here though, so try not to be disappointed. This is a quiet town."

"I know. I think I know why you're so uptight all the time now. You like it like this, don't you?"

"Out of the two?" He nodded. "Yeah, I like it here better. But I can't say it's because of the neighborhood. I actually prefer the Japanese people over the English. At least in Japan, you know civilized people. Here courtesy isn't as popular. I would much prefer to get in the way of an angry client in Japan than here."

"I don't really get what you like about here better then."

"I don't know. The house. My mother. Things that are close to me. Back in Japan, I have Baaya. I've said it, but I think of her as family. That doesn't mean that I like staying at my father's house. He doesn't even live with me."

"Sounds lonely."

"It is. I don't dislike it, but I enjoy my mother's company over none, and I still have my space when I require it."

"If you had to choose then, would you want to live here or there?"

He thought about it but shook his head in the end. "I'm not sure. Neither."

Kaito laughed. "Okay, then where would you want to live?"

"I don't know."

"Hm. I guess that's okay." Kaito leaned back. Saguru was sure that the magician felt perfectly content in Japan. He, on the other hand, had hated growing up there. Home, he'd been less ostracized by the community in, but it didn't hold the same thrill and opportunities he had in the east. In truth, he didn't feel comfortable in either. A few trips to the States told him he wouldn't enjoy it there any more.

Kaito yawned, losing interest in the movie as well. "I think I'm going to take a nap."

"Again? But you slept on the plane ride."

"I know. Maybe its jet lag or something. I don't know." Kaito rubbed his eye and Saguru saw the dark marks there.

"Get some sleep then. I'll wake you when my mother's finished cooking."

"Thanks." Kaito settled himself into the couch, falling asleep.

"You know, you could go in one of the bedrooms."

"Um." The magician didn't seem to care about his opinion so he let him sleep, feeling his own eyes close at the tediousness of the movie before him.

In an hour or so his mother called to them, coming into the room and seeing Kaito still out of it.

"**Maybe we shouldn't wake him up. He looks tired.**"

"**Don't worry, Mother. Kuroba-kun always looks tired. I think it's normal for him.**" Saguru looked over, realizing that he was telling the truth. Kaito always did look tired, even when he wasn't active as Kid the night before. "**Besides, we all need to eat.**" He shook Kaito's shoulder, the magician waking easy for once. He had to guess it was because Kaito was unfamiliar with his house and a lighter sleeper for it.

"Tea's ready."

"Tea?"

"Ah, dinner," Saguru corrected himself. "Sorry, I forgot you don't call it that."

"Oh, okay." Kaito blink a few times, waking himself up. The magician looked to his mother and smiled as he got up. "Thank you."

"No problem."

The curry his mother made smelled good and he flocked to it as he entered the kitchen. He took the closest chair to him and started eating. Kaito waited until his mother sat down and took the last opened seat across from him, Saguru's mother on his left.

"So, Kaito, how long do you plan on staying?" His mother started up light conversation while they ate.

"I don't know."

"Well, feel free to take whatever you want if you see something in the fridge you like. We'll go shopping tomorrow too, so that you can have some stuff around the house that's more to your own tastes."

"You don't really need to do that." Kaito played around with the curry, though he did seem to be eating it. "I'm fine. I'll have whatever you make."

"Non-sense. Get something for you. If you don't like what I make, I won't feel insulted. I know there are some Japanese foods out there I don't like. I mean, the whole country eats Sashimi and I think it's gross!"

Kaito shiver. "So do I."

"Really? I guess I'm not the only one then. Saguru likes it."

"On occasion," he agreed. "I don't favor soy sauce on it though, or any type of sauce really."

"I don't like fish in general." There was a catch in the magician's voice when he said the word _fish_ but it could have because he'd said it while he was eating.

"Are you a vegetarian?"

Kaito looked up at if the idea were of him not eating meat was something unbelievable. When he did, Saguru noticed how much of the magician's food was gone, even though he hadn't seen him eating. Then again, he hadn't been paying attention.

"Nah, I like just about anything. Fish, just..." Kaito shrugged. "I don't like it."

"Hm." His mother considered this. "I make fish pretty often, cooked though. I'll try and avoid doing it while you're here. I'm sure I could come up with something we all like."

"Like I said, it's no big deal. I don't mind if you guys eat it, I can always have something else."

"Kuroba-kun, it's more trouble than not to go around your odd tastes. Making two meals would be more difficult. Just agree with her already." Saguru ate the rest of his food, taking his dish and rinsing it out in the sink before heading back to the living room.

After settling back into his spot on the couch and turning on the television to something less agonizing to sit through, Kaito came back into the room with him and proceeded to fall back to sleep where he'd been sitting earlier.

"I'm going to go to bed soon as well. You may as well get yourself comfortable while you and I are both awake and able to walk around." He had woken up pretty late before he'd sprung the idea of leaving Japan on Kaito. That had been around noon. Their flight hadn't come in until after three and then the plane ride had taken in hour. By Japan's time, it should have been pushing seven or eight at this point, though it was closer to noon in England. The time difference would take a few days to get used to. His mother must have known that they'd already eaten breakfast. She hardly traveled back and forth often, so it didn't surprise him until he'd thought about it.

"I'm fine. I'll be able to get myself around, especially if I plan on sticking it out with you." Kaito's words came out clear, without any inklings of sleep that his posture was giving off. When the magician opened his eyes, they were lucid enough that Saguru wasn't sure if Kaito was really tired or up to some game he couldn't guess at.

Saguru settled back in, deciding it was best to ignore him.

"You know?" Kaito looked over at him, arms folded and eyes as piercing as they always were. "I kind of get why you wanted to come back here. To get away from it all. But even after we arrived, it's like you're depressed about something. Can't see what could be bothering you when there's nothing really going on right now. Care to tell me what it is?"

"Do forgive me for not feeling the way you think I should when I'm like this." Saguru indicated to his smaller form as if all his troubles weren't obvious.

"No, I get that. It's something else. You always used to be so much more... direct, lets put it. It's like you're withdrawing into yourself and I can't tell why."

He sighed, knowing full well that even if he explained himself to the magician, Kaito was not the type of person to understand his feelings. When he met Kaito's eyes though, they were shining with a willingness to listen that was too tempting to pass up. It was rare for someone to do more than ask for something from him. This wasn't a simple question, Kaito actually wanted to know what was wrong and he wanted a serious answer.

Without thinking through his words as Saguru usually would, he starting on the thing that was bothering him the most. Something that had little to do with his new body.

"Have you ever wanted to change something? I know that, as Kid, there are a lot of rules you're breaking. But the idea is nothing new. Leblanc beat you to that concept a long time ago." He thought for a moment of how to phrase it because he'd never put his thoughts into words before. "The world as a whole. Do you ever feel the need to change all the wrongs? Sometimes I just want to shake people for being such idiots. There are deaths that can be stopped every moment, but people are stubborn or stupid or can't see past their own hatred to find a better solution."

"Yeah, a lot of people feel that way. Can't say that it's something that hasn't come to me in passing." Kaito raised an eyebrow. "What's that have to do with anything?"

"I wanted that. I wanted to... change something. To make the world better. Catching criminals and murderers, people who had to be caught for the betterment of society. It was more than a calling, it was almost a need. The puzzles and clues, they mean very little to me. I've only gone through mental exercises enough so that I can stay one step ahead of whomever I'm pursuing. That was, before this." Saguru raised a hand to rest his head, feeling his eyes close as he bordered on his own depression. "These people who attack me, who Kudo-kun is fighting while I remain on the sidelines, they're more powerful than anyone I ever expected to exist. I've known mobs and the like, but these people go beyond that power. Beyond what I thought even humanly capable. I don't think I have the power to stop them, and with people like those who attacked me out there, what good am I doing, really? I save a few individuals, but most of the time it's often far to late for even that by the time I get there. I've seen more corpses than I have suspects. Ever since it occurred to me just what task I was taking on, I realized how out of my league I am, and how much I'm failing in everything."

"You make it sound like you expect to be a god or something." Kaito leaned back, hands interlocked and expression contemplative. "No ones perfect. We can only each do whatever is in our power to do. It's not like anyone could ask anymore of you, and sure, individually it may seem like a small act, but you're not the only detective out there. In masses, there _is_ a difference being made, and I think you know that."

"On the smaller criminals, maybe. But when those who fight against what I believe in gather and gain power, like these people have, even a million detectives won't be enough to stop them." Saguru felt Kaito's optimism touch the frayed edges of his emotions though, even if he knew there was much more wicked people in the world than good, be their wickedness unintentional or not. "I'm starting to believe that no one can, so what I do makes very little difference."

"And if every detective out there, every officer, thought as you did and gave up, you'd be okay living in that kind of a world?"

Saguru laughed, feeling the dark feelings taint it to something evil. "Floating on the surface like we have been all throughout history isn't winning the battle, it's just evening the playing field and fixing the damage after it's already been done. The criminals are arrested only after they've murdered, the people devastated by war honored only after they die, towers and forests rebuild after they are ravaged by fire. That isn't living. It's only fixing the old wounds, not creating more of what is needed."

When the magician had nothing to say back to that, he let his eyes close with the small smile fading off his lips.

"You know, I kind of feel bad for you now." Kaito's words breaking into the comfortable silence of the room, shook him. "Rebuilding is making a difference and making it better. It's no band aid. It shows that we care enough about our world that we're willing to stop fighting back those who started long enough to help life grow again where it was taken. Sure, I mean, it's not great that people get away with murder, but who knows if they would have murdered again if they weren't stopped? I don't think people who've fought in wars and lived really care about a medal either. We know what they did and they know what they did. A little shiny piece of steel changes nothing and the honors they give to the families who lose loved ones are there as a memorial to their life, because there's nothing more we can give. For all the things that are destroyed by fire." Here Kaito paused long enough to have Saguru turn to him and see something close to the same depression before the magician turned it into a wide smile. "It may be destroyed, but like you said, they replant the trees. Buildings are rebuilt or new ones are made in their place. If all we did was fight against those who hurt us, it would only hurt us in return. It's necessary to fight back, but not to keep doing it and to keep hating those who hurt us. That only brings more hate and that's when we really lose."

Kaito laughed, stretching where he sat until he was comfortable on the couch once more. "I know, I'm sounding preachy, but I just can't see the world the same way you do. So these people are dangerous. I know that and so do you and so do a lot of others. So what? You're not alone and I don't see Kudo-kun giving up the fight yet. That guy's a smart one if I was ever going to give someone credit for being able to use their head. I can't see him as someone who would be fighting a losing battle if he didn't think he had a chance at winning."

"He's more capable than I am."

There was silence for a moment.

"Did I really just hear you say that? You can call Kudo-kun better than you so easily and not me, even when I _have_ gotten the better of you and he hasn't? Geez, I really must be losing my touch. That," Kaito grinned at him "or you're losing yours."

"I will not be antagonized."

"Who's antagonizing? I was just asking a question. I mean, you've never complimented _me_ like that."

"Very well, Kuroba-kun, you are more capable than I am as well. I've realized that some time ago. Now that I've said it aloud, are you happy?"

Kaito lost his smile, turning it into a glare that startled him. "You know, Hakuba-kun, if you didn't tick me off so much... ah, never mind." Kaito got up off the couch, walking towards the door behind them. The entrance to basement, as well as the bedroom, was in that direction. "If you want to keep trying to make yourself into a pity case, then there's nothing I can do to stop it. I'm going to sleep. 'Night."

And Kaito was gone. He didn't hear anything from him again until he woke in the morning.

...

_All was dark before him except for the female laying out on the ground in from of him. The woman was clearly in pain, though she couldn't seem to do more than twitch against whatever was ailing her. Saguru moved closer to her, pity welling up in his as it often did when he found a woman in need. His father had brought him up that way, even if he barely knew the man. It was some code of honor that was handed down from his grandfather._

_Wherever they were, it was very dark. He thought for a moment that they might be underground, but the walls were too perfect for that. He didn't know how he'd get help to her when he didn't know where they were to begin with. _

_Walking over to her, he'd made his decision. The woman wasn't going to make it, and it was clear that whatever pain she was feeling was only making her suffer more close to the end. Her eyes were wide open, staring at the ceiling. Saguru didn't think that she even saw him as he leaned over her._

_How he knew there was a knife at his side, he wasn't sure. He looked momentarily down at his outfit, finding he was wearing brown and green backwoods hiking gear. That didn't bother him at the moment. It seemed only natural that the outfit be on him. _

_Taking the knife and steadying it over her, he knew he had to make it quick or she'd only be in more pain, and that was what he was trying to prevent. Her eyes remained unfocused as he steadied himself._

_At the last second, the woman moved. He didn't see how she had done it, but she was turned away from him the next instant and his knife had cut into her side, completely missing where he'd been aiming. The woman screamed, startling him and making him fall over backwards._

_Blond hair and a furious expression met him in the next instant, blood sliding over her in places she had no wounds before. She stood before him with his own knife in her hand._

_"How dare you!" _

_"I-" He stammered, unsure of what he was supposed to tell the woman who looked to be in much better health than she has seconds ago, even with the blood. "I was only trying to help."_

_She made no move to attack him, though he prepared himself for it. Her eyes were just watching him. _

_"I can die on my own."_

_His knife was thrown past him, the blade barely missing his arm as it dug itself into the ground behind him. He looked back up at the woman, her hatred still there, though there understanding in her eyes. She walked away from him, blood trailing behind her._

_He moved to help her, feeling the fear of her retribution hit him once more when she turned to stare at him. He couldn't understand how he wasn't shaking at this point. There was something that told him this woman could do anything to him and he wouldn't be able to stop it when she chose to._

_"Leave me alone!" she spoke sternly_

Something grabbed his arm, but the woman hadn't moved. She was still standing before him, hatred for the world impressed against her very being. The fear was back. If it wasn't the woman behind him, it could easily be something much worse.

Something was spoken to him, but he didn't catch the words as the darkness of whatever enclosure they were in ate at his vision. Soon his eyes were staring at things that hadn't existed there before, a poster that he'd seen not long ago making itself clear, followed by the fact that he was in his bed and someone had their hand on his shoulder.

"Bad dream?"

He sighed at the magician. Of course Kaito seemed to find him at the times when he was most vulnerable. The nightmare was still vivid in his mind and he half expected to find burning eyes in the darkness when he turned to stare at the magician.

Saguru nodded to him. He wasn't one to have nightmares. He rarely dreamed, and when he did, he had no memories of what took place in them after he returned to consciousness.

"It's not really time to get up." Kaito shrugged in the darkness. "But I couldn't go back to sleep and your mom already turned in for the night, so I just came to have a look around. I didn't want to wake you up, but you were moving around and I thought it was worth the risk." Kaito leaned closer to him but at this point they could both see pretty well in the darkness. "Anything bad?"

"No, just strange." He couldn't explain the dream, let alone why he had had it. Analyzing such things often bordered on the realm of spiritualism in his mind, and that had nothing to do with reality. He did briefly wonder why his clothes were so different, though he knew he would not have struck the woman in any reality. He wouldn't have enjoyed her dying in pain, but he wouldn't have made himself a murderer to stop it.

"Go back to sleep then. I know that dreams make it hard to get a good night's rest. I'll see you in the morning."

"Wait."

The magician had already turned to leave, though he hadn't reached the door that separated his room downstairs from the rest of the basement. "Yeah?"

He took the covers off of him and followed the magician to wherever he was in the mood to go. "I don't feel like falling back to sleep at the moment."

"Suit yourself, but I really wasn't doing anything."

They both went back up the stairs, exiting near the front door. The wall connected to the dinning room, as well as part of the kitchen and a small part of the bathroom in the guest room on the main floor connected to the alcove that led down the stairs. Kaito moved near the sofa and picked up the television remote.

"I wasn't sure if I'd be able to watch while your mom was sleeping. Is it okay? I don't want to wake her up and there's nothing else to do that I could really be quiet doing."

"It will be fine as long as you keep the volume under ten."

So Kaito turned it on, finding some odd talk show and making Saguru curious enough to find his watch and see that it was a little after eleven at night.

"You weren't joking when you said it wasn't time to be up. These time zone differences are really troublesome."

"I think it's kind of fun." Kaito's Grinch-like grin told him just how fun he thought being up while everyone else was asleep, was. He had to admit that he'd loved doing the same when he was a child because of the freedom it offered. That quickly lost his interest through.

"It would be fun if it weren't so boring. There's nothing to do and no one is awake, so it's often more lonely than it is not, for me at least."

Kaito shook his head. "I like it that way sometimes. Alright, most of the time. No one to tell you what to do or when to do it. The world is yours."

"And yours alone. Again, I find that rather lonely."

There was a silence between them for a while before Kaito once again smiled over at him. "I don't know. I guess I've never really cared one way or the other if there's someone there with me. I'll admit to talking to myself now and then when it gets too quiet, but... I don't know. It never really bothered me."

"A socialite who doesn't mind the life of a recluse. You do find a way to contradict everything that I know, so why not?"

Kaito's grin grew wider if that were possible. "Yeah, I have a way of doing that sometimes. Can't help what I like. If everything in this world had an explanation to it, it wouldn't be so much fun."

"Most everything in this world _does_ have an explanation."

"Yeah," Kaito sighed. "But you don't think about things like that when you're watching something truly wonderful. I'm sure those who most enjoy the Northern Lights have never had their existence explained, or those watching fireworks really caring how they're set off."

"Childish joys."

"Hm?"

Saguru ignored the man on the screen in favor of the conversation they were having. Most of the time he and Kaito only argued with each other, but that made the talk interesting and he was finding that the magician was a better conversationalist than he thought. "Those are childish joys. The thrill of a loud sound and of bright colors is more primal than it is an individual human joy."

"Who cares? It still makes people happy, and happiness breeds happiness."

"No, it does not."

Kaito didn't rebuke him this time.

"Guess you're right. I don't really know how to word what I mean then. I kind of forgot where I was going with it anyway."

Something Saguru had been thinking about before came to him as whatever Kaito was trying to prove escaped the other. "You know, my mother brought it up but it never occurred to me before that you always look tired, even when you aren't acting as Kid."

Kaito looked over at him, the flashing of the screen hiding most of his expression and reflecting in his eyes to make them glow. "It told you, dreams don't let you sleep very well."

"So you dream? _Every_ night?"

The room became filled with the quiet babbling of the talk show host.

"Yeah, I guess I do. I wouldn't call them dreams though."

Saguru raised an eyebrow. "Nightmares?"

Kaito laughed, through Saguru didn't know why. The magician shook his head, waving his hand at him. "Forget it, alright? There's nothing to be done about dreams, so why worry on it?"

"You know, there are ways to help get rid of dreams."

"I know, but they don't work, and the ones that do work I can't keep up. I stopped having them a few years back after school forced in into bed and pretty much put me on a schedule. I broke that schedule. There's nothing I can do about it."

"This has been going on you years?..." He looked over at the magician. Kaito was one of the happiest people he knew. Dreams were often brought along by stress and he couldn't help but think of what hardships must have been placed on Kaito when he'd been a child. He knew that the magician's father had died while Kaito was still young. As of last night, he'd also come to the disturbing realization that the magician's father was Kid. He couldn't think of what had happened between Kaito's father dying and his classmate taking on the role. If Kaito was half as human as he pretended not be be, it was probably a lot.

He was tempted to ask, but in the end, he didn't want an answer. The dangers he'd been so keen to protect Kaito from, by any means including jail, had been thrown aside since his discussion with Ai. The girl had a point. He had no ground in which to control Kaito's life while he was running around with the same dangers following him. If it had been to keep others safe, he could have found solace in turning against the magician. If he was given more information on what was going on while Kaito was running around as Kid, that would only make it harder for himself. He wasn't going to get in Kaito's way but he had no way of helping him any longer either.

Kaito nudged him. "Off in you're own little world there?"

"Something like that." Saguru settled himself in the cushions, trying to calm himself down enough to get back to sleep so that he'd be awake in the morning.

"Well, don't worry about me. I mean, I've lived with these nightmares all my life. Half the time they don't even make sense anymore because I've already had so many my brain must be running out of things to play around with."

Saguru raised his eyebrow. As long as it was fictional danger, that couldn't hurt to know. "What do you dream about?"

"Recently?" Kaito had to think. "I forget some of them over time. Last week there were these wolves chasing me through a field at night and people screaming after me, but I have a guess at why I've had that one. A few nights ago there was some sort of twister outside my house in one, and I ran outside to watch it. It was scary, but that one was actually kinda cool. There was this electricity from something being hit and the sky was this white color that... it's hard to explain but it had black in it but still looked blinding." He shrugged. "I've had one where I was in a park after someone stabbed me and I walked away from them smiling and sat on a chair in that had somehow appeared in the middle of the sidewalk and sat there bleeding like an idiot. I don't think dreams are meant to make sense sometimes. Those were some of the normal ones I've had."

"I can't imagine having bad dreams every night."

Kaito shook his head. "It's not that bad. They don't really stop me from doing anything and I'm only tired when I wake up for a while. It's something I grew up with, so I guess it's different for me than it would be fro you."

"Did you have a dream just now?"

Kaito laughed. "Yeah, something about all these cats in cages and I wanted the brown tiger one but whoever I was with wouldn't let me get it. Like I said, it's not all that bad." Kaito frowned. "There was something else. There were these little mice, no bigger than a millimeter and they were drawing pictures on the wall. Weird, right?"

Saguru laughed. "Yes, that is quite strange. While I don't dream much, I don't think my mind would be playing around with miniature artistic rodents."

Kaito laughed with him, turning and looking at the window that now had the curtains drawn across the, to keep out any light as well as intruding eyes.

"Want to go for a walk?"

"Hm?" Saguru looked over at where Kaito was staring before turning back to the magician. "It's almost midnight and it's dark out there, not to mention the temperature could only have gone down and you have no coat."

"No, but you probably have a jacket here that will fit me." Kaito smiled. "Please?"

"Can't we do this tomorrow? There's nothing to see out there anyway."

Kaito continued looking at him, pouting like a spoiled child and giving him one of the most effective puppy-dog eyes he'd been tempted by.

"Tomorrow."

"Fine." Kaito slumped back into the couch. "But tomorrow as well as tomorrow night, or no deal."

"Why do you want to go outside when it's dark out?"

"Because things look different in the dark and I like to know my way around."

He watched the magician closely after that. "You aren't planning anything, are you?"

"No." The magician's eyes were sincere when they locked. "I just... I like knowing where everything is, day or night. If I want to go somewhere or do something, I like being able to do it."

"Fine, tomorrow night then I'll show you around _again_." He sighed. "I'll humor you if you humor me."

"What do you want?" Kaito tipped his head to the side. Saguru felt himself shiver and he looked into the darkness in the room that the television couldn't reach. He scooted over closer to the magician until they were next to each other. Kaito's hands were still behind his head, but one dropped to wrap loosely around him as Saguru made his self comfortable at the magician's side. Kaito moved more so that they could both be laying better against the sofa.

He would have been embarrassed if his fear of the dark wasn't so great at the present time. The darkness could hold anything in it, and right now, there were a lot of things that liked to hide in its shadows that he didn't want to face.


	24. Child's Play

Okay, I've never been anwhere besides the US and have no friends/family in the area, so I may be wrong with some of my facts- The internet is good, but not the best, apprently, for some of the places I'm looking up.  
So if I get anything wrong- sorry -_-  
I'm also not advertizing for any of the places they mention. They are real places (because I like that) but, again, never been there and, again, I'm not advertizing them.

Enjoy

* * *

_**Chapter 24: Child's Play**_

There was quiet chatter when he started to open his eyes. Saguru looked around, realizing he was alone and that someone had thrown a light blanket over him. He didn't remember falling asleep, let alone being tired.

He stretched, taking the blanket off and finding his mother and the magician in the kitchen, laughing about something. His mother turned to him when he entered and handed him some plates.

"Set the table. When we're done we're going to go out and hit the town!"

"Alright." He took up his appointed job and set the table. After that was completed, he went back and got silverware and napkins without instruction. Again glad to be taller for his age, he was able to place everything were it should be, if not standing on this toes and having to reach for it.

"Up you go." His mother picked him up from behind when he wasn't ready for it and put him in one of the chairs.

"I could do it myself."

"Of course you can. That doesn't mean that I'm not going to do it anyway. I mean, what a lucky person I am. They say you're kids are only little once, and here I've got you for a second time."

"Hopefully not for that long," Saguru whispered under his breath. Kaito must have gotten behind him sometime during their conversation and made him jump when he laughed.

"You know, I have enough trouble trying to treat Kudo-kun fairly without people laughing behind my back. You, I'm afraid I wouldn't be so tolerant with. I mean," Kaito bent down near his ear to whisper, "if we do get you away from these people, it sounds like finding a cure is going to be difficult, and I don't need both of you running around my ankles."

"You know," Saguru sighed. "I'm actually starting to miss the way things were."

"I'm not." Kaito pulled the chair next to him out and sat down. "I didn't mind you, but..."

"But?" Saguru raised an eyebrow.

"I didn't mind you there, but you _did_ have a way of messing up all my more entertaining gadgets."

He was sure that wasn't what Kaito had been wanting to say. He wasn't sure how he knew, because Kaito was the master he portrayed himself as at keeping away information. As a thief, it was probably helpful. As a teenager, it was only aggravating. What was good for Kid was not good for Kaito and was certainly not good for him when he wanted said information. This time though, it was easy to spot the shift in the magician's words.

"Here." Saguru's mother turned away from the counter and laid out a big plate of waffles. "Take as many as you want. I can always make more."

"Thank you." Kaito turned on one of his more charmed smiles. Saguru shook his head and waited patiently while Kaito took his portion before getting some for himself.

It didn't surprise him when the magician handed the plate over to him instead of putting it back in the middle of the table. They both knew he was too short to reach it. Big-brother Kaito just loved being so helpful. When Saguru gripped his fork, he held it far tighter than he had too. As much as he wanted his independence, he had to rely on the magician for even the smallest of things.

"Keep frowning like that, Saguru, and it's never going to go away." His mother waved a fork in his direction for across the table as she settled herself in with them. The kitchen, while large, was a decent enough size that they weren't separated far from one another.

"Honestly." Kaito sighed. "Half the time I don't even know what I do to tick you off. What did I do, while we're on the subject?"

"Nothing." Saguru took a few waffles for himself and pushed the plate back into the center of the table so his mother could have some. Kaito had already used the syrup and had, again, left it closer to him. That only made Saguru more angry, but he tried not to show it.

Kaito shrugged, turning the conversation towards his mother. "So, Hakuba-kun says there's nothing around here, but can you tell me what 'nothing' consists of, because I must have the wrong definition."

"When we go. I have a car and we can drive all over the place. I have work tomorrow but today is free reign and, as long as you still want to be out, I'll take you anywhere. Within reason, of course. No trips to London today."

"No arguments there. I'd like to see it, but I've never been particularly interested in London. I just like new places in general. We passed a few things on the way from the airport and I have to say, your neighborhood looks really nice."

"Yes, it is. Quiet most of the time but we have a few people on the next block who like to get drunk and make a fuss every other Friday, so make sure you aren't out then. Jail several times apparently isn't enough for them. They're brothers and I have no idea why they insist on acting like morons. I find myself wishing they'd do something really bad one of these days so that they'll just go away."

"Aw, that's not nice. What if one of us is the person they do the 'something worse' too?"

"I know, I know. It's just aggravating."

"Can't argue with you there. I've been around more than my fair share of drunks, though most of those I've run into weren't the type to tend towards violence. It's kind of funny, but I know a guy who gets more upset when he's sober than when he's not. It's like a tiger compared to a kitty."

His mother laughed. "You know, if you're around these kinds of people already when you're so young yourself, just wait until you're older. I had the worst time when I came of age because all my friends insisted on taking me to a pub and watching me get sloshed. I was sick almost a week."

"Yeah, I'm not too thrilled about that. I mean, it might be fun. It's like a right of passage and everything, but I don't-" Kaito stopped and the smile left his face for a moment before it came back. Neither of them missed it though and the magician didn't know how to continue so he stopped and ate a bit of his food.

"But you don't what, sweetie? Something you don't want to say? Well, I am mother and I won't make fun of you for it."

"I don't really..." Kaito looked like he was going to stop but seemed to force himself to continue, though he couldn't keep his eyes off his plate. "I don't really have a lot of friends. The few that I do have- I'm not sure how they'd react to something like that or if they'd even want to go out with me. There's one person I know who would, but her dad would want to come with.."

"And you don't like him?"

Kaito shook his head quickly, raising his eyes to show he hadn't meant anything of the sort. "No, of course not. It's just- ah." The magician gave up at this point, twirling around a piece of waffle on his fork. "You met Nakamori-ojisan, right? He's kind of like my dad, in a way, and kind of not. Aoko- he'd be there for her. To watch over her. And I just don't think I would like being a part of that."

"Kuroba-kun."

Kaito moved his glance to the side to look at him. "Yeah?"

"First off, my mother knows nothing of your family situation, so she doesn't know you lost your father. Secondly, you're an idiot."

The room was quiet for a while.

It was broken by Kaito laughing. "I'm the idiot now, am I? Not the person next to me who gets angry simply because someone breathed in their air?"

"Yes, you are. The reason being for that is because you think of the connections between all of you the way that I used to- before I realized how much more there was to it. 'Like' a father? It wouldn't surprise me if Nakamori-keibu would jump off a cliff to save you. Most people are lucky to get that kind of devotion from even one of their parents. Here you have it and you're dismissing the man as if he were nothing. If you really wanted to go out drinking when you came of age, as I know you're older than Aoko-kun, there wouldn't be any doubt in my mind that he would take the place of your chaperone. I'll even bet you money on it that he offers before you even have to ask it."

Kaito closed his eyes, leaning his chin on his hands. "It's not that I don't know. It's that it's not the same thing."

"So he's not your real father, so what?"

"So, do you know what I wouldn't give to _have_ my real father? Don't you think I know that Nakamori-ojisan has filled in whenever I needed someone like that? It's not the same and sometimes I don't like being reminded of what I don't have."

This was the first time he'd heard the magician speak so candidly about the way he really felt, and while he would have liked to think more on that fact, he was too angry with him to get his thoughts away from those of confrontation.

"Okay, since my son can't do it and I don't know how to use as prettied up words or compiled evidence against you- the way he does, I need to say something."

They both looked up at Saguru's mother.

"Kaito, I'm very sorry you lost your father. I didn't know and I can see how that would effect you but think of how much worse it would be to have no one? At least there's someone in you're life who's trying. And you know, it can't be easy on him either. I'd have to think it would be very awkward and hard on you both. But I met the man. Your mother and I were went out to grab something to eat with him while the two of you were sleeping. I wasn't with him long, so I'm sure that my opinion won't be taken seriously, but I don't think he's the type of person who would do something like that if he didn't care for you. I don't think his trying to take you're father's place, I think he's just trying to be your friend- someone there when you need them."

"You know," Kaito smiled. It was the first of it he'd seen since they'd merged into their current topic, "that actually makes me feel better."

"Sometimes you just have to hear it. Now hurry up and finish eating." Saguru's mother put her fork down and stood up. "We have the whole day ahead of us and there's no sense in wasting it when we can be moving _and_ talking."

Kaito laughed and got up as well. Saguru sent a quiet little smile his mother's way that she didn't notice. That was why he liked her so much, why there was a part of him here that hadn't wanted to go back to Japan almost a year ago now. Whether he was his right size or not, she was still the same person and, while she had more liberty to do what she wanted, nothing much had changed.

"Come on Saguru, hurry up!" His mother took his plate before he could get to it, smiling and trying to grab his hand in hers. He pulled away before she could and raised his eyebrows.

"Please, just leave it be for a while?"

"Fine." His mother sighed but it turned into a slanted smile as she looked down at him. "You know how hard it is to say no to you when you're this adorable. But that only makes me want to hold you more!" She fisted her hands in front of her as if resisting the urge to bend down and grab him. "Okay, fine. But this is only temporary."

"Of course." He followed his mother out of the kitchen. When she opened the hallway closet in the living room, he noticed that most of his clothes were gone. Of course, he'd planned on staying in Japan longer than he had, but he was certain he'd left at least one coat behind.

"Ah, sorry Saguru. I bought a bunch of new clothes and I put your stuff away." She turned to Kaito. "Do you mind if I lend you one of my jackets? I'll make sure that it's something you can walk out in public with."

"Sure, I don't mind."

Saguru had flashbacks of some of the cases he'd read over involving Kid and his ability to change genders. Even if she gave him the most feminine coat she owned, he didn't think the magician would have any trouble walking around in it.

His mother handed Kaito one of her regularly worn jackets that couldn't be considered girlish. At least, not much. This one was a dark ruby red that he held up. By the looks of it, the jacket would hang a bit too long on him. The fabric and style made it appear more of a sweater than a coat, but at least it was enough that the magician wouldn't freeze on their trip. Her eyes remained on Kaito, worried.

"I have a question. While I was staying with you, when Saguru was teasing you while we were in your bedroom, I noticed you were hurt. Are you well?"

"Hn?" Kaito turned his head to the side. "I'm fine."

His mother was not one to stop though. She walked up to Kaito with purpose. The magician looked uncertain, but he didn't do more than take a step back. Before Kaito could stop her, his mother started to unbutton his shirt.

Kaito tried to get the coat out of his hands so he could stop her, but his mother was fast and she'd already opened enough to see the bandages. Saguru looked over, noticing that there was blood on them again.

"What in god's name happened to you?"

"Nothing." Kaito let the jacket fall to the floor, backing up more and trying to close his shirt. "Don't worry about it."

"You're bleeding!"

"I know."

"We have to get you to a doctor or something!"

"No. It's fine." Kaito drew farther away, closing himself between the closed door that led to his mother's room, and that bathroom. "I don't need a doctor."

"What happened?" His mother looked to him and Saguru couldn't lie to her, but he couldn't tell her the truth either.

"Kuroba-kun was injured last night. I tried to talk some sense into him too, but he wouldn't listen."

"I saw the bruises, but this?" She turned away from him and back to Kaito. "What's been going on?"

"It's really nothing. My mom knows I was hurt. It's being well looked after so, with time, it will heal on it's own. A trip to the hospital won't change anything but send someone a bill."

"As I'm holding back on the urge to grab you and drive you there anyway, how in the world did that happened?" She moved closer to him but Kaito backed up. The wall was still a good distance away and Saguru didn't think that the magician would allow himself to be trapped- which meant acrobatics and Saguru had been there to see how bad the wound was.

_That blood reminded him of why he wanted to come here. He wanted to get away from that, from the pain, from the danger- and yet it was still here, he'd just forgotten about it temporarily._

"I fell into a window." The magician took another step back as Saguru's mother advanced on him. "I was hurt, but there's nothing to be done about it. Really. You can call my mom. She'll tell you the same thing."

"I'm not going to call your mother because, right now, you are with me and I am the legal guardian. It's my job to make sure that those under my roof are well. You are not. Let me see it."

Kaito darted away back towards the kitchen, his mother still near the window and he at the closet, so the formed an acute triangle. Saguru was doing nothing to block Kaito's path from his position, and he didn't really want to. Kaito shouldn't be here. This was his home. This is where all the things that involved people in the shadows - be them wearing black or white - were not allowed to enter.

"What is with the both of you?" Saguru's mother looked between them but he had no answer for her. There were a lot of things that would have been suited as an answer but the ranged too long for him to even think more than the first few.

"Mother." His words were quiet but he kept his eyes firm as he looked up at her. "You know how I'm in danger? I told you that Kuroba-kun and his family were better suited to help me, and that's because he is in danger as well, if not for a different reason. I'm sorry that we can't answer your questions."

His mother continued to look between them but Kaito didn't rebuke his words. Finally, she settled down.

"Fine then. I don't like being kept in the dark. I don't like others being hurt right in front of me and not be able to do anything about it. I hope that you're wound isn't as bad as it looks."

"I'm going to go change the bandages," Kaito scooted the few more feet that kept him from the bathroom. "I'll be right out." The door clicked shut and they were left alone.

"Saguru." His mother waited until they made eye contract. "Is something like that going to happen to you?"

"I don't know. I don't think so. Compared to Kuroba-kun, I'm pretty well protected."

"Protected?"

He thought of a better way to word it but none came to him. "I'm just safer than he is, and he's an idiot about some things that any logical person would have figured were the wrong way to go about doing what he does,

though I'm not fully sure what he's gotten drawn into. Knowing him, it could be anything, and it's not me, so I have no way of stopping him from whatever it is he wants to do."

There was really nothing else to say to that. Kaito came out a few minutes later, looking meeker than he'd ever seen him. His black shirt was buttoned up again but Saguru could see the stain of blood on it, now that he was looking for it.

"You'd better kept the jacket on while we're out." Saguru picked up the crimson material from where it had been discarded on the floor. "Not that you would want to take it off in this chilly weather."

Kaito took it back with a nod under both their watchful eyes, openly tense himself.

"So?" he asked after he had it zippered up. "Where are we going to go?"

Saguru looked to his mother. He hadn't been lying when he said there wasn't much around his area to look at. Tokyo had many landmarks that stood out to the world- Ipswich was much smaller and paled in comparison to London, so it was often overlooked.

"I was thinking about going to the park."

Kaito wasn't the only one surprised at the answer.

"Mother, I told you I'm not a child anymore and the park is hardly the first place that I would want to see either."

"Yes, but it's a little bit of a drive and we could stop if we see anything along the way. Besides, I like the park."

"I don't mind." Kaito smiled, some of the unease washing away to give way to interest. "It might be fun."

"Of course you would agree." Saguru shook his head but he wasn't too upset. He was pretty fond of the park himself, though too much time spent there had dulled his enthusiasm.

Injuries and questions aside, they left the house, his mother opening the garage door to get the vehicle out. The garage looked a bit cramped with all the boxes his mother kept her possessions in. Why they were never moved to the house, after she'd been living here the better part of fifteen years, he didn't know. He never really cared to ask before. It was just another thing about his mother that he'd filed away. His interest level now rose, though he had no idea why it hadn't before.

Kaito waited in the driveway with him, scuffing his feet on the ground as if his shoes itched.

"What's the matter?"

The magician looked down at him and gave a half-hearted shrug. "I don't know. Nothing new. I just-"

He waited but Kaito didn't answer. His mother had started the car and he saw the break lights come on. "Just what? I'm sure you don't want to have this discussion in the car. You look like you're ready for my mother to bite you."

"That's not it at all." Kaito shook his head but that didn't help clarify Saguru's confusion.

"Then what is it?"

"I just- I'm not like this, normally. I hate it. I mean, I'm used to doing it with strangers- that doesn't bother me, but now I know your mom... and I don't like lying to her."

"You haven't lied about anything, and if there have been false truths, they've come from me."

"That's not what I meant either." Kaito looked up and stared at the car as it backed up towards them. "I never had to lie to my mom, because she never asked. I don't know how, but it seems she knew anyway. You're mom, she doesn't know anything. About me." Kaito closed his eyes and then opened them a second later as the car stopped in front of them. "Or about you. And I _know_ that's right, but it doesn't _feel_ right."

"Planning on telling her you're Kid then?" Saguru smirked.

"Actually, I thought about it."

And then it was gone. "When did you think about it? Do you have any idea how my mother would react to that?"

"No. Do you?"

Saguru grunted some unintelligible noise. "No."

"One last question then, before she decides to come out and catch what we're saying, do you think the information will hurt her or help her? I know she's worried about you, and I won't tell her much, but if she knows I'm reliable, it might make it easier on her."

"And easier to call the police here on you." He thought about it for a few seconds. "No, I don't think it would help her, only confuse her and make her worry about the both of us."

"Fine then," Kaito opened the back door and got in, "I'll leave it at that."

Saguru didn't know what to think about their conversation, so he decided it was best to ignore it, since Kaito said he wouldn't be acting on any of his rasher urges. He got into the front seat with his mother and turned the heat up to eat away at the chill that started getting to his fingers and face.

The park really wasn't that far and Saguru could see Kaito practically glued to the window as he was observing everything. Their trip back to his house was tense, so he didn't think the magician had enjoyed it very much. Now they all had a chance to relax as Kaito took in the sights, and Saguru reacquainted himself, though things hadn't changed much in the year he was gone.

They passed more houses than not, most of them very much like his mother's. There wasn't much going on in their small town, though Kaito didn't seem to care about that.

"Are all the streets named after people?"

Saguru missed the name of the one they'd just passed, so he couldn't elaborate far. "There are a lot acquainted with the founders of the land. The road we're on now is the main road, so these little side streets are common."

"What street do you live on? I didn't check."

"Eagle Way, but it's long, and you'll get lost if you don't know the area. We'll walk around later."

"'kay." and then Kaito was back to his own sightseeing while Saguru relaxed. A few other questions were shot their way that his mother answered for the magician. _What was in the area, What was her favorite place to ea_t, and the like.

In twenty minutes Kaito looked like he was ready to jump out of the car and take a closer look at the town for himself, when they arrived at the park.

There was nothing much to see in the beginning. His mother parked they car and they all got out, walking down the path that he had taken many times when he was a child. This park hadn't originally been constructed to entertain children, though a playground had been built a few years back. He'd been content enough when he was young to run around the ponds in the area and see what new, fascinating creatures he could discover.

There were trees littered all around them in no particular order or design. It was just something that felt natural. Most of the leaves had turned interesting colors by this time of year, each hue complimenting one another in a beautiful array that spoke to him of wildlife and freedom. Of course, fall had it's own way of portraying oncoming death, but that was only after the leaves started to fall. As of now, they were still clinging desperately to the branches that couldn't give them the nutrition they needed.

"It's like having the forest in your backyard."

Saguru looked up at Kaito, observation skills lacking more then usual because the magician was simply too tall and had his hands folded behind his head in the same carefree manner he usually did, turned to the side and looking around, inadvertently blocking his expression from him.

"It's a lot more enjoyable than staring at buildings all day. You live close enough to the city that I'm surprised your house is in such a rural area."

Kaito nodded, turning more so that Saguru could actually see him. He wasn't smiling but even without it, it was clear the magician was content. Kaito had his own ways of looking happy without grinning like a clown, but this was the first he'd seen of it.

"Well, it's still mostly houses. If it weren't for the river, I'm sure my neighborhood would have been just like any other."

"If it weren't for the blue, I doubt the air above our head would be the same sky. It's little things like that which change a place, for better for for worse." Saguru looked down at the small stream they were crossing as the sidewalk became a bridge for a few feet.

"Are there any fish in there?"

Saguru looked sideways at the slowly flowing water, grass trying to eat away at it but failing. In the summer, it wasn't uncommon for bits of the stream to be overgrown. "I doubt it, but I'm not sure."

"Um."

That was interesting. Kaito asking a question and giving up right away even though the magician didn't receive his answer. He wondered why.

The children's area was around the next turn and there was no looking into Kaito's odd behavior anymore, as he was dozens of feet ahead of him.

"Don't hurt yourself, you idiot!"

"I'm not an idiot!" Kaito called back, though there was laughter in his voice as he aimed for the large web-like towers that must have been built while he was gone, since he had no memory of them.

Kaito ran towards it, careless of his own injuries and acting as if they weren't hurting him. Maybe they weren't. With Kaito, it wouldn't surprise him if he had a talent for blocking out pain with excitement.

As if a spider making itself at home, Kaito took to them before anything else, weaving in and out of the iron threads more than he had too - most likely trying to show off - until he made it to the top. Then he proceeded to slither up the next one.

"Wow. He could be an acrobat if he wanted to." His mother came to a stop at his side once they reached the benches littered in a rough circle around the area. The park was laid atop a distorted circle, separating in the corner of the large field it was located in.

"I wish his interests went in that direction. It would certainly make life significantly more stable on the lot of us, but it's Kuroba-kun's showmanship at work right now, nothing more."

"What is he interested in then? I had assumed he was like you and into whatever your father and you were always going on about with your science-law, police stuff."

Saguru frowned. He did not like being compared to his father, even if it was a correct comparison. "Kuroba-kun's been into magic, as far as I can tell, though I've recently discovered his talents run much further than his interests."

His mother stifled a laugh. "Magic, huh? I never thought you'd become friends with someone like that. The two of you fight constantly as it is, but you act more like siblings arguing than actually disagreeing with one another."

"Because when both parties are wrong and they know it, they don't really try to win the fight."

His mother sat down on one of the benches and crossed her ankles. "I'm afraid I don't understand. You're both wrong about something so neither of you likes winning an argument against the other?"

"Yes."

She laughed, though she was still confused. "If I ever come to fully understand how the minds of young boys work, I'd worry about myself."

"I'm not that young."

"I beg to differ." The magician suddenly in his ear made him jump, having him fall right into Kaito's trap as the magician's hands got underneath his arms and Saguru found himself gravity-challenged, as he usually did in Kaito's presence.

"Hold on tight." His classmate took off at a run, wasting a few seconds of speed on grinning at him. Saguru didn't take lightly to Kaito's command. The magician was crazy. He closed his hands tight around the jacket before one of Kaito's hands left it's hold, the world going dark for a second as air whipped past his ear.

Then he was somehow on the first level of the large, constructed, boat-like contraption for the children to play. It was made to be big and the main attraction for the entertainment portion of the park, but it was still over five feet off the ground -including the fence around it- and Kaito had not only somehow jumped it, but had done so holding him as well.

He could hear his mother clapping as Kaito turned and bowed to her.

"You may let me down now. I'm not some stage prop." Though the antic scared him, it was only in retrospect. Kaito had been so fast, he hadn't even felt the danger of falling.

"Not gonna happen." Kaito turned on his heels and headed towards the center of the ship.

The first thing Saguru realized was the mast that had always been there was was lacking the same vine-like grid that used to be there, making it look less mast-like and more like someone took a large cross with two horizontal bars and stuck it onto the ship. He didn't think about that for too long though, as Kaito pulled off his monkey act once again and somehow jumped up high enough for his feet to land on the bottom bar of two, his hand coming up to grasp onto the one above him.

"Do not kill me if you insist on jumping around like an idiot!"

"Stop calling me an idiot, you idiot." Kaito forced him away and up towards the bar above them. "If you don't climb up there and hold on until I get there, then I'm not helping you down."

Saguru felt the slick, blue, paint-coated metal under his fingertips and shook his head. "Let me get down myself then!"

"Get up there or I'm letting you fall whether you want me to or not! I can't keep holding you like this!"

And he did hear the strain in Kaito's voice. Both the magician's arms were bearing his weight away from his body and it had to be hurting his side. Guilt-tripping him was not the way that Saguru wanted to be treated, but he got up on the post anyway, wrapping his legs together and holding onto the brown post that was holding up the other two blue ones.

Kaito sighed, jumping up so that his hands were on the poll, then his legs, then swinging his body around as if gravity did not exist until he was sitting on the bar along with him.

"See now?" Kaito looked out at the park, the large field and surrounding trees making up most of the view. "It's fun up here."

"Maybe for a bird. Last time I checked, I was human."

Kaito laughed.

"Be carful up there!" His mother was below him and Saguru could tell she was worried. Not that he could do anything about it. He wasn't afraid of falling... maybe that was a lie. He was afraid of falling because he was at a good enough height to be afraid of it. He knew he was safe because Kaito was there, but fear was fear. Just because he knew he'd never hit the ground if he did lose his balance, it didn't make the fear go away.

"We're fine!" Kaito yelled back down to her. "This is nothing like any park I've ever been to. It's amazing!"

Looking around at the park with the magician, he tired to remember any of the parks he'd been too in Tokyo and came up short. There may have been some around his neighborhood, but he never really cared about that kind of stuff. He knew where all the hospitals, prisons, and main buildings were, but he had no idea where anything more than the middle-school was, as he'd seen it in passing. Tokyo was much more modern in terms of it's building structures, so it was hard to believes- looking around at the maelstrom of Fall hues, that there was anything like this so close to the city.

"You live near Tokyo," Saguru spoke, thinking on it. He'd been to a few parks in Japan, but none had any swing-sets or a place set aside for children. There were plenty of trees and parks that resembled a fair ground to him better then they did any park in Europe. "I have to guess there aren't many by you. Even if they were, Holywells is pretty unique in-and-of itself. I've never come across a park that I liked more growing up here, and it's close to home, which was always a good thing."

"It's so open."

"Yeah. It's gotten pretty famous for it's bird watching, though many of the species that frequent this place come in the spring and summer."

"I like it here." Kaito looked over and grinned at him. "If you can't find me one of these days, I ended up here."

"I'd hardly think you the type of person to turn tail and run to the sanctuary of the park."

"It's quiet here." Kaito's eyes turned away from him as the magician's grin stayed, though the glare of the sun had him closing his eyelids more and giving his face a softer expression as he stared out into the field.

Saguru shivered. "It's much better in the spring time."

Kaito looked down, though he didn't give any indication towards his sentiments. "I think we're scaring your mother. It's never nice to keep a lady waiting. Maybe we should get down."

"Maybe we never should have come up here."

Kaito scoffed, grabbing him around the waist before he was ready. The magician let his feet fall to the lower bar, which he then easily jumped off of. He spared little time leaping from the boat as well, landing a foot or so from his mother.

"Don't do that! What if you hurt yourself!"

"I know my limits. Here." Kaito handed him over to his mother like a sack of potatoes. "It would be more fun if he'd get involved too, but I don't see that happening."

"No, I don't either- that is, unless you whisk him off again. He needs more of that. Make sure you don't stop."

As if he needed his mother to encourage the magician's behavior. "I am _not_ a child. Must I keep repeating myself?"

"I never said you were. I was saying that because you're like a hermit. When he's with you... you're not."

Saguru raised an eyebrow but his mother put him down before he could start up any type of conversation or argument- whichever way it would have went.

"This park is huge. Want to see the rest of it?"

Kaito nodded, jumping back up the way he had just come. There was almost no sound when he landed back on the boat. Once back on, he placed one hand on the side railing and kicked his feet off, so that he was walking on the boarder of the boat- on his hands. "It's nice to get out once in a while and just have fun!"

"Well," his mother laughed, putting a hand to her heart. "That's not my kind of fun, but I'm beginning to see it's yours."

Kaito grinned, his hair falling into his eyes, just short enough not to blind him. "Anything that doesn't have you locked inside a room is my kind of fun."

So they walked around some more, though it quickly became clear they wouldn't be staying long. The woods were fine when they took the small trails leading through them, Kaito finding smaller trails so they ending up going in circles and neither of them could remember which way they were supposed to be going. That magician was having fun with that, as the trees were overgrown in places and he wanted to explore. If the branches were lower, he was sure Kaito would have actually scaled one of the trees with the way he was acting- then again, if the magician really wanted to, maybe he could, even without a low hanging branch.

The problems became obvious when they arrived at one of the many ponds around the park and Kaito made sure that he was no where near it. His mother tried to coax the magician towards it, but nothing worked.

Saguru looked down at the clear water, a few of it's fish inhabitants close enough to shore for him to see. The ponds here were clear and as much a main feature of the park as the children's area. Besides them, there wasn't much else to see. He had no idea why Kaito suddenly became a brat and wouldn't be budge from his ten-feet-away-from-me-at-all-times dual with the water.

It took a while longer for his mother to give up, though she also lost the fight.

"Fine then," she said cheerfully. "Now that we've gotten to freeze our butts off, lets go get something to eat!"


	25. Seclusion

Sorry everyone. Both I and my beta too far to long on this chapter.

* * *

**Chapter 25: Seclusion**

Kaito followed him downstairs. Saguru was too tired to care, though he did throw a questioning glance at him when he entered the bedroom.

Once in bed, Kaito decided that was a good time to get in bed next to him.

"What do you think you're doing?" Saguru sat up and tried to push him away.

"Be quiet. I'm trying to go to sleep."

"In my bed? My mother said you have your pick of the whole house, so go sleep elsewhere."

"Don't want to."

"And why not?"

But Kaito had already closed his eyes and his words were drawing more quiet with each syllable.

Saguru laid halfway down so that his head was propped up on his hand and poked at the magician. "Come on. You're not even under the sheets. Why do you want to sleep with me?"

_'Um.' _Kaito got out of the bed long enough to grab the sheets, eyes mostly closed, and fix the covers so that he was under them and not drawing them tightly enough around Saguru to be uncomfortable, as they were at his initial invasion. "It's safe."

"What's safe?"

Kaito shook his head. "I don't know."

And then Saguru knew he wasn't going to get an answer from Kaito any longer, as it was obvious that the other was simply too tired to stay awake any longer than he had.

"Really," he mumbled to himself. "I can see why you can fall asleep just about anywhere if this is how you do it every night." And it wouldn't surprise him if the magician did. To have nightmares every night would be exhausting. He couldn't even imagine it. Every person had nightmares, and he'd had several in a row- but to deal with them for that long... He was going to go somewhere tomorrow. He needed to pick a few things up, including some new clothes.

Saguru sighed. _That_ was going to be a nightmare all over again, in and of itself. If Kaito's mother was so vivacious about getting him into every outfit that suited her fancy, his own mother would be much, much worse.

And he'd worry about all that when it came up. He was tired too, and as much as it was awkward having the magician sleeping with him, he was glad for the company. If there was one person who was good at fighting off the darkness, it was the person next to him, who treated the shadows the same way he treated the light.

"You're such an idiot!"

He stormed out of the living room, debating whether to go in his basement bedroom or head outside. Since he was trying to escape and not corner himself, he chose the latter.

"Who are you calling an idiot?"

"Must we really yell so loudly in the morning?" His mother came out of the kitchen where she was making breakfast, rubbing her eye to ward of any lingering sleep. "What's all this fighting about anyway? You two seemed to be getting along just fine."

"His- This..." Saguru clenched his hand into a fist after brandishing it at said idiot. "Has no more IQ than a garden snail!"

"A what?" Kaito shook his head. "Where do you pick these up? Anyway, I told you I didn't do anything!"

"Yeah right! And who else would? Who else besides you would know-" Saguru shook his head, having gotten his point across. "I mean, could you have made this any more public? The entire world knows you're here now and if I don't show up to find you in _my own_ neck of the woods, then _somebody_ is going to notice _something_!"

"I told you," Kaito growled, showing off his teeth. "I didn't do anything!"

"Then who else would?"

"How should I know?"

The both seethed silently for a while. Kaito threw a new dark coat over his shoulders that Saguru hadn't seen the magician wear, and he knew it wasn't his mother's.

"You know, I don't care. I just don't care. Don't believe me. Fine!" Kaito held his hands close to his side but Saguru sensed the urge to spin on his heels and shout at him that Kaito was giving off. "That doesn't mean I'm just going to sit here and let you blame me for something that I had nothing to do with! I get that enough from you with the stuff that I'm _actually_ responsible for. I don't need it for the things you think I'm responsible for, too!"

The door didn't slam but the noise was close enough to it that his fear spiked.

"Now," his mother said, seemingly unfazed by all the things going on. "What was all that about?"

"Nothing," Saguru shook his head. There was nothing to say to his mother on this particular subject, not that he didn't think she'd bring it up the minute she watched the evening news, if only out of interest.

That damn thief. He told him- specifically TOLD him not to do anything! What were the chances that someone would impersonate a Japanese criminal while both of them were here? Kid. Tsh- As if anyone could, even if they tried to. He'd seen the heist note. That damned idiot couldn't be impersonated with as much accuracy. It was best that he was gone. Saguru was ready to go off on him anyway and that was one argument he didn't want to have in front of his mother, no matter how much Kaito seemed okay with the idea.

"You know... you really should have at least waiting until breakfast was finished. I'm sure Kaito doesn't know his way around, and I doubt that he'll be very warm out in such a thin coat. Without breakfast and the proper attire, seeing as we haven't been able to go shopping yet, the boy is likely to get sick."

"I don't care." Let the magician get sick. He deserved it.

His mother looked up at the clock and Saguru found his own eyes trailing along. It was a little before ten. The notice had been sent out early this morning for late tomorrow night. He'd never know Kid to make a proclamation with so short a time limit for preparations. Not that he cared what Kaito was planning. Maybe the magician had done it in the hopes that Saguru wouldn't have time to notice before that night.

"Seeing as we now have no plans, I'm not really sure what to do with my day. I'm not going to take you shopping only to have to go back with Kaito."

"Forget him. With any luck... this will make him go home. That's where he belongs anyway." Saguru stalked away, not feeling in the mood to eat. He wasn't about to just stay at home though. If Kaito did return, it would be when the magician wanted too. That didn't mean it worked the other way around. Saguru wasn't sure how long it would take before he was ready to face Kaito again, but the next few hours didn't look promising.

Everything was so far away from his house and he didn't feel like spending time with his mother. She was a nice woman and all, but it was clear from her words that she wasn't taking his side in the argument. Not that Saguru could blame her. It looked as if he had started the fight, and he had, though for reason solely on Kaito's shoulders. There weren't any words to express to her why he was the one in the right without saying too much, so it was best to remain silent.

In the end he grabbed his coat and walked out the door without even bidding her goodbye. She had seen him slip his shoes on, so it wasn't like she didn't know he was stepping out. Whatever breakfast she has made, he found himself hoping that he hadn't ruined it, though it was likely he had. That didn't sit well with him either and only gave him more incentive to get away from everyone. He just needed some time alone. He hadn't had any in... He couldn't remember. Ever since he'd been poisoned it seemed that he was constantly being smothered by attention – not that he didn't enjoy that at first. He was scared and he didn't want to be alone. All the attention, after a while, was more of a drawback than a solace to him. With Kaito gone and his mother possessing worry-free tendencies, he was sure he wouldn't be followed like any other wandering child would be. He was old enough to take care of himself, even if he didn't look it, and he wished that _someone_ would acknowledge that fact.

He liked walking his streets again. Yes, maybe he did think of England as more of a home than Japan. He knew what to expect here, remembered these roads far better and was more comfortable with his mother's language than he's father's. He may have grown up with his father, but he had been young. His mother had taken him soon after the point that he was retaining memories, so he couldn't be sure which of them had influenced him more as he matured. He was, in his own opinion, very unlike both of his parents.

Though his father had instilled in him a hatred that he knew he could never rid himself of. Saguru just… couldn't stand the way his father worked. He watched as, half the time, his father was too lazy to complete case files when they were handed into him and the other half he was laughing off details that should have been looked into. Seeing a man like run a police force was sickening, so he'd never had any interest to join the ranks of the followers. The cases, however, had never once left his mind. Detective work was very intriguing to him and as he went passed middle school, hearing how those around him wanted to be doctors and firefighters – some even lawyers and artists – he found himself alone in his ambitions. A detective, in the eyes of high schoolers, sounded like an idea out of a fairytale. No one ever praised detectives in real life.

And books were where he was led to, though he'd been an avid reader for most of his life. Saguru was ashamed to admit that he had not grown up with Doyle's stories, though he envied the man's character. Only after he'd feed himself all the information he could find on the science involving old case files did he then look into fictional works. When he turned fifteen, he remembered asking his mother to buy him the series after he finished the first book. They were interesting and the character was one he idolized, since no human in his life had ever shown the same interests, let alone the same talents that he wished to possess.

Obsession was a good word for it. He knew that very well. Books were… often times much better to have at your side than a friend. Books didn't berate you the same way.

Saguru laughed to himself when he found that his steps had taken him to the library.

"Of course," he whispered under his breath, hoping no one would hear and think him strange. How he'd gotten there so quickly, he wasn't sure. The library was in Woodbridge, which was a good two towns over, though he had to admit that the towns around him were quite small in comparison to most. His own was branched off from the bordering town he had just passed through without notice, so it wasn't any surprise that their population was rather small.

Not that the lower population didn't help. Through his life growing up, he'd never once been involved in a crime and only a minor car accident down the road made any lasting impression on him. It was so calm and safe here…

And so boring.

He shoved that though away as he pushed open the library doors. He'd come here many times as a child, though he'd never walked. As he aged, it was a comfortable bike ride over, but his mother had always taken him in the car before that because of the distance. He scarcely noticed it while he was lost in his thoughts.

The smell of clearer and worn pages welcomed him towards the comfort he was longing for. That smell would be forever one that he looked forward too and he detested any place that held books and didn't hold that scent.

Ignoring the patrons around him, he sought out the crime section he'd found himself wandering towards since he was old enough to read. He'd picked up books far out of his league more than once, to the great displeasure of his mother. When he became old enough to take on tasks that suited his qualifications, he'd left the pages in search of real-life experience. Now that he was back, he was free to peruse as he saw fit.

Immersing himself in fictional writing at the moment wasn't interesting him. After picking up a few books he had read and enjoyed years ago, he placed them back on the shelf. The characters- he didn't want them. Feeling along with another person at the moment was a good way to escape, but not when you were reading crime - not when something like that had just happened to you - not when you're situation was as safe, yet as dire as any that you found in the pages of a fictional story.

So he went on to the non-fiction. That was a bit more interesting and he lost track of time for a while reading over formulas that he had long since discarded. Ai, after all, had brought back some of them, though he hadn't had time to dissect his own mind and find the necessary components to be of assistance to her. He probably never would be anything more than a nuisance anyway. She was a scientist in profession while he was a detective. There odds weren't very high that he would have helpful information that she didn't already possess.

One of the things that made him so good at what he did was his ability to retain information. It was something that he had assumed all of the greats out there possessed. Much to his dismay, he had to admit it was something that made Kaito so good at what he did.

Being a library, even though he was in the part obviously not meant for children, didn't mean there weren't kids running around. Two in particular, boys, were making it very difficult to concentrate on anything for longer than a few seconds before one of them would slap one of the metal shelves or they'd go rushing by him in some makeshift game of tag.

He sighed. This was a pointless venture in any case. The books weren't the only thing about libraries that he cherished, so he placed his current non-fiction work on microorganisms back on the shelf and treaded his way carefully over to the steps so as not to be rushed by the two boys running around as if the devil were on their heels. He would be soon, in the form of a librarian, if they didn't knock it off.

Upstairs was a lounge area where any noisy behavior of any sort was watched and criticized to the point that the noise-maker would either leave feeling embarrassed or take one step into the room and realize it wasn't the place they wanted to be. This section held all the large-scale newspapers from the town as well as the surrounding neighborhoods. There were magazines and filmstrips that could be looked at. Comfy chairs outlined the room in anything but symmetrical fashion, with equally as soft benches aimed in the center so that it felt more like it home than it did a place of literature. Even the study section was outside of this room so not even scratches of a pen could disrupt the solitude.

Saguru avoided the newspapers for one main reason- they held something he did not want to think about right now. He sat down in one of the chairs in a more shaded part of the room where only half of the current six occupants could see him.

He should have brought a book with him, but he hadn't really been thinking about that. Saguru sighed, turning away to the shelves around him. Magazines never held his interest. They were basically by writers sure of their self-importance and the other half were full of advertizing.

The chair was comfortable and he didn't feel like getting up and being judged as the annoying child who was disturbing the peace by walking back and forth, so he relaxed. He really wasn't tired, but it nice to just sit back and not feel like you were being watched. It took him a moment to realize that he hadn't had this kind of time alone since… well, since everything happened. It was kind of nice.

And also a bit boring.

His hands itched on the armrest and he found himself looking at the papers around him anyways. The news that morning already told him what he'd find on the cover page, but he hadn't listened past the word "Kid" at the time to know what was being stolen, just that it would happen tomorrow.

The papers were right in front of him so why not look? He had time to kill and the longer he stayed here the less time he would have to be home. He was out of the cage right now, so what did it matter if he was interested or not? Saguru smiled. t wasn't like he couldn't stop Kaito with the way he was now…

The magician seemed so angry at him though. Maybe he was wrong. Maybe Kaito hadn't put out a notice. If he hadn't, then that was the uncanny timing he'd ever come across to date.

He had to put the newspaper down before climbing back up into he's seat and settling in. As to be expected, Kid was across the front page. It wasn't often that he showed up outside of Japan… right. Kid had to have been someone else before Kaito. He knew who now. The picture the paper had printed, while far enough away not to show any features, was clearly not the teen. After he'd identified Kaito with a certainty, he'd been able to match up Kid's pictures with his basic body type. This person was too tall and his grin didn't contain the same amount of teeth that Kaito's did. It was clearly his father's picture, which shouldn't have been a surprise since Kaito hadn't been photographed in the UK.

His stomach growled and quickly withdrew into himself, hoping no one heard it. He really should have had some breakfast before he left.

Some annoying bodily functions aside, he had to wonder if that bothered Kaito at all. There'd been enough recent photos of him back in Japan that the thought had never occurred to him before. Saguru shook his head. That was not what he should be focusing on. Now that his body so loudly stated how hungry he was, he wanted to get his mind on other matters that could distract him, but equally were impersonal enough not to make him second-guess himself.

That was easy enough when to do when he read the first line of the paper and had to put it down before reading further. If this _wasn't_ Kaito, they certainly had guts. He really should have continued to listen to that news broadcast - not that he was sure what they would have said. He was certain that his hometown wasn't used to having shades in white throwing out riddles.

There was a photograph of the heist notice and Saguru saw nothing strange about it, just as he was sure the picture on the news had been authentic. Kid wasn't someone who could be imitated easily, seeing as they would need the mind as well as the conviction to pull it off.

For now, the least he could do was find out exactly was was being targeted.

_Tomorrow night, taken from the crown, two clear discs from on high shall shine on parallel wings of iron_

Okay, so the time and day... and the crown jewels - seeing as how there isn't much else 'taken from the crown' could be translated as - were obvious. Was this really Kid though? Saguru had to think even Kaito wouldn't be so much of an idiot to state it blatantly that he was going after something so well-guarded.

But then again, Kaito had proved himself an idiot in the past.

There may have been other crowns out there, but right now there was no further hints as to a more specific target, so he had to let his thoughts float around the idea that Kaito had gone insane. That being said, there wasn't a singular crown jewel, as the term referred to not only jewels but other items held in value by the royal family.

The discs part made him think it was something circular, and since Kid fancied diamonds, that's where Saguru's mind went. The 'from on high' had him guessing though. There was no question that the jewels under the crown were kept at the Tower of London, but he wasn't sure _where _in there they were kept. 'Tower' was a shaky description, as the Tower of London was more a medieval fortress than a skyscraper.

If only he wasn't so hungry, this might be easier to decipher. That, and it had been ages since he was familiarized with the crown jewels. He's seem them a few years back on one of the exhibit days, though he'd hardly categorized them all. He knew there had to be a lot of diamonds in there that fell under than category, but he didn't have the information to narrow it down.

That, and he was a bit surprised to read further and find no mention of the notice being translated. Kaito may have been able to speak English well enough but he doubted the magician could write as well as he could recite, and even his reciting wasn't all that good.

If there was one thing, Saguru didn't want to admit he was wrong. He couldn't be. Who else would do this? Threatening the crown wasn't something to be taken lightly and the notice looked so authentic if not for the perfect script.

There was no further mention in the article as to how the note had been deciphered.

Before he knew what he was doing, Saguru had gotten up and gone to one of the children's computers downstairs and started looking into the facts. There were more than enough artifacts to look through, but he started with what he already knew about Kid. The thief's attracted to the big and shiny like mosquitoes are to sugar.

That being said, it wasn't as if the crown jewels were advertised over the net and, being that there were two, he thought that there was some connection there between the artifacts. There were more than enough jewels that were cut from the same stone but none that had their residence here, nor were any being hosted from a foreign country.

Then there was the possibility of it being a crystal as well. There may have been, and probably were, hundreds of crystal artifacts out there, and that wasn't something he was familiar with. Looking it up online he was just as unsuccessful.

There were just so many things out there that it could be. He had to think, narrow down his search. Wandering aimlessly across the net wasn't going to do him any good.

The Aurora Pyramid of Hope came a while back, but even Kid couldn't steal that... maybe he could. Kid had gone after a huge statue in his presence before... Maybe... He'd keep that as a secondary guess. It would have to be stolen whole or all the diamonds making it up would be displaced. How Kaito thought he'd be able to hide it though, that was another question.

Two discs from on high... okay, that sounded like the sun and the moon, but they weren't out at the same time, and if they were, he highly doubted that they were both out at 9:15, as the '_parallel_ _wings of iron_' stated. That meant either an hour after the sun went down or too early in the morning for the moon to be out.

So two discs had to either be referring to two items in that shape or something else he wasn't seeing...

What else was there that was round and fitted the 'from on high' description...

Well, there were stars.

For the next few hours, Saguru went through all diamonds, crystals, and anything that had the word 'star' in it. He came across a couple that would have fit, but none that were close enough to mean anything.

Laying his head down on his hand for a second, he started thinking. What was he missing? There was the Cullinan Diamond... that was a start.

It had several pieces two it, most famously know for as the The Greater and Lesser Stars of Africa. That would fit... There were nine pieces, but those two got the most recognition and they were currently in the Tower of London.

But how would they shine? That was another puzzle. Sure gems would shin in the light, but did that mean that Kid would be striking during the day? Or did it have something to do with the method that he would be using?

Someone touching his shoulder made Saguru jump, a small noise of fright escaping him as he tried to calm himself down.

"Hey."

He put a hand to his mouth to stifle his breathing. "Kuroba-kun, you really have to stop doing that."

"Didn't intend to. In fact, I didn't even want to come." Kaito closed one of his eyes and looked away. "Your mom was worried and asked if I'd look for you." The magician shrugged. "She said you'd be in here somewhere if you weren't home or at the park."

"What time is it?" Saguru looked over at his computer screen, since it was easier than finding his watch. Seven twenty-five was clearly displayed at the bottom.

"Late. Come on."

Saguru shook his head. "You go. I'll be home when I wish to be."

"Look," Kaito growled. "You're mom is worried and, if you didn't notice, it's dark out there and you still have a good walk home. I'm offering to walk back with you. You should take the offer."

"I don't want it."

"Fine." Kaito turned away, mumbling under his breath. "Don't blame me if someone kidnaps you."

"I won't." Saguru went back to the computer but his heart wasn't in it anymore. When had... He shook his head. Nevermind, it didn't matter. But his fingers on the keys didn't want to move. Why did this matter? Why did he feel it was so important to find out what Kid was after? He couldn't be there to stop him. Odds were he was to be sheltering the criminal after the fact as well. All this... it meant nothing anymore.

Saguru exited the windows he had open and climbed off the chair, exiting the building with a small smile at the wonderful second home the place had become to him.

Kaito, as he thought, was out front waiting for him.

"You know, I can get myself home."

The magician didn't say anything, wouldn't even look at him. Saguru was still angry at him for the same reasons that were likely holding the magician's tongue in check. Maybe it was better this way. Of course, he'd thought that once before to, only to discover he was wrong.

"Hey."

Saguru wasn't expecting Kaito to be the first to break their silence, walking on as if it was no big deal. Saguru had stopped a moment before running the few feet to catch back up to the teen's longer strides.

"Yeah?"

"Why were you at the library?"

Okay... how was he supposed to answer that? "I was there because I wanted to be there, why?

"It looked like you were doing research."

Saguru smiled something he hadn't in months. "Yes, I was. That was unintentional. I simply grew bored with sitting there with nothing to occupy my time with."

"I thought the first thing you'd want to do was get as far away from anything to do with me, or Kid, as you could get. I didn't expect to find you diving headfirst into your own investigation. Don't you have any friends?"

"I don't see why that's any of your concern. I'll do what I want."

"You never really talked to anyone in class. I always thought it was because you were busy or you were getting ready to head back over here. You didn't really spend much time in Japan. I think I saw more of you, you, not you, sitting-in-class-and-doing-what-you-have-to-to-get-by, as Kid than I ever did outside the costume."

"It wasn't as if you ever invited me to your house before now."

"No, but I had my reasons. You didn't. I'm not your only classmate."

"They didn't interest me."

"And me, who did interest you... the closest you ever got to me was something closer to stalking than it was anything else. Even Aoko... Thinking back on it, you said that you liked her, but I didn't see you talk other than on some rare occasions."

"I do like her."

"You don't even know her."

"I don't have to know her well to know the type of person she is."

"That's not what I mean."

"Than I'm failing to understand what you're asking me."

Kaito sighed, rubbing his fingers against his eyelids and down his face. "What I'm saying is that I've never seen you spend time with anyone, you know, like a friend. You go off getting all mad at me, and you run off to a computer?"

"What so wrong with that?"

"What _isn't _wrong with that! One person, that's all I ask. Just tell me one person who's your friend in the literal sense of the word. I mean, I've got Aoko but I know all of my classmates and I've spent time outside of class with at least half of them because I like them and they're good people, not to mention that it's fun and it's what normal people do."

"So you're normal?"

"Stop trying to change the conversation."

"So what if I don't have any friends? Is it that big of a deal?" Saguru looked up at Kaito, finding that something about this topic was making him very angry and he wished the magician would just drop it.

"You know..." Kaito whispered. The teen's face blended in well with the moonlight, reflecting his eyes a darker shade. "You know so much about me, and I don't really know anything about you. I mean, sure I know all this science-detective stuff you like, but that's about it. And there something about that, that kinda makes me wonder... is there anything else there? Don't you have any other interests? Anything that you're passionate about? As a person, I know next to nothing about you. The you you are now isn't the one you were before. You're scared and I get that, I do. I felt that way before too, though I got over it. I don't really know _you_." Kaito looked over at him sideways. "And I don't think you really do either. Being by yourself... that's not... I couldn't do it. Don't you ever get lonely?"

"Sometimes," he admitted. It was the first time he ever allowed himself to say as much aloud. "But I'm used to it. I used to have friends back in middle school, but they always wanted to do this or that, and I really wasn't interested. I'd play the sports, go through the motions, but I wasn't anything special. Someone else would always get the high-five or the cheer. When I got old enough that the girls became interested in me, I couldn't relate to them and it only pushed me further from the other boys. So no, I never really had friends or the need for them. I got by, did I not? And, unlike what you've said, I'm happy with the person I've become."

"What if it didn't have to be that way?"

"Huh?"

"You're not the only one that's been thinking on stuff." Kaito held out his hand, looking the other way. "Come on. I'll be your friend."

"Really?" Saguru asked in an are-you-serious tone of voice. "I think I'll pass."

"Fine." Kaito shoved both hands in his pocket impassively. "But just so you know, you're my friend. I've been known to lie to my friends. Look at Aoko. I feel bad about that."

Kaito full out grin and turned to him for the first time. "And you know what? I think I'm getting tired of it." He winked. "Sorry about lying to you before, but don't make plans for tomorrow night. I'm going to be a little busy."


	26. New Common Ground

There are probably a million things wrong with this chapter. I'm really sorry. I wasn't planning on the co-op story I'm writing to be so long and complex that it was all but impossible to keep up with the stories I was already writting. I'll try and post more often... I'm really behind.

* * *

**Chapter 26: New Common Ground**

"Saguru slow down. The pizza's not going to disappear while you take time to breath."

He ignored his mother and took another slice, too hungry to care what image he was giving off. His mind wasn't at the table of the small pizza place they were at. His mother's breakfast had gone to waste and she was the type of woman to hold onto spite, so she hadn't made any lunch. That was why they were currently here, eating in an overcrowded parlor filled with the scents of cheap ingredients.

"Who knows. It might." Kaito grinned at him from his seat next to his mother. Had the magician decided to sit next to him, Saguru didn't think he would have the stomach to continue. "Come on," Kaito sighed, closing one of his eyes and resting his head on his hand as he played with a slice of his own. "You knew, right? I mean, you wouldn't stop yelling at me for it before I left."

"Then why would you try and make me think- ah! Never mind." Saguru went back to the food, as low quality as it was.

"I didn't want you involved. If you thought it was someone else, I thought you might let this one go..."

"Until I found out what a liar you were!"

Kaito shook his head. "At least lower your voice. I'm sure no one here can understand Japanese, but you're getting a little loud."

"So what?" But Saguru did lower his voice. There were ears everywhere and you never knew which ones were keener on what you had to say. It was also rude to yell out and he wasn't going to be looked down on as the 'noisy child'.

"Come on, you can't be mad at me for this. It's not like I made any promises."

"I'm not mad at you." Saguru let his hand fall into his lap, ignoring the want to keep eating instead of having to talk. "I'm mad at myself for believing you. I can't believe I fell for one of your cons."

Kaito winced. "I hadn't meant it like that."

"Then how _had_ you meant it?"

Kaito looked away, off into the dark restaurant, his eyes wandering but settling on nothing. "I don't know. I just didn't want you to go. I thought if I lied to you, you would stay behind and stay safe. I wasn't very subtle in my invitation to everyone. If the cameras catch you on film I was afraid it could have some negative consequences. It's not like I was lying to you to keep myself safe. Really," Kaito's eyes rolled to rest on him, all serious. "What danger are you to me? And I don't mean that in a negative way, just as a fact."

"I can be the greatest danger you've ever seen, Kuroba-kun." His eyes hardened and he let a sadistic smile cross his face. "What _greater_ danger is there to you than me?"

Kaito stopped playing with his own food and turned on him, eyes calm. "You wouldn't."

"Try me."

"It would only put you in danger."

"As if I'm not already in enough danger as it is." But Kaito had a point and his argument fell flat. Maybe if he were his right age and there weren't people out there trying to kill him for nothing more than the fact that he'd seen them with riffles, then his words would have more impact.

"So... I still don't understand what you're trying to accomplish. I understand where you've come from, but not what you're trying to archive."

Kaito went back to smiling and finishing the piece of pizza he was eating. "Oh, so now you're finished being mad at me and want me to be a good little boy and answer your questions? Ain't gonna happen." Kaito licked some of the grease off his thumb.

"Cheeky bastard," Saguru muttered under his voice but he couldn't find it in him to be any angrier with Kaito than he currently was. "You'd better be careful."

Kaito laughed, shrugging and no longer caring about avoiding eye contact. "You know, you can do a 180 better than most skate-boarders."

"You're playing with fire and it's not just with me. The police here won't let you get what you want so easily, especially with what you're targeting."

"Huh?"

Saguru looked away from his mother and back at his food. "Just be careful."

"Always am." Kaito made sure to avoid his mother's gaze as well. Why was it that the magician had fought so hard against him once he sniffed him out and yet Kaito wanted to tell his mother who he was!_?_ It made no sense.

"You know," Kaito said dully. "I'm bored."

Saguru rolled his eyes. "Oh yes, that _is_ the surprise of the century. The person who takes 'manic' to a whole new level is bored."

"Quit being a smart-ass. I really am bored." Kaito looked out the window, the glass colored and difficult to see out of even if you were pressed up against it. "I thought it would be exciting, being here in a new place, but it really isn't."

"Forgive me for not telling them to throw a festival in your honor."

Kaito laughed, really laughed. There were times he'd heard the magician take a chuckle or two from someone for his own amusement- sometimes more depending on the severity of it- but this was Kaito, actually laughing, at something _he_ had said no less.

"I don't see what you find so amusing."

"You know, you have a sense of humor there, you just need to learn how to use it." Kaito licked his fingers where the grease was, making Saguru crinkle his nose up. Kaito saw and stuck his tongue out at him before licking off the rest. "Anyway, let's do something exciting."

"That sounds more foreboding than interesting." Saguru reached up and took one of the last pieces on his side of the table. "Besides, I'm still angry with you. Whatever you're planning, do it alone."

"What fun is it doing anything alone? Come on, you know you had more fun at the movies with us than you had, say, reading a book all alone at your house."

"I prefer reading material to your obnoxious behavior any day of the week."

Kaito looked like he mulled that over for a second before smiling at him. "They why were you staying at my house?"

"Emphasis on the past tense used in that sentence," Saguru muttered, closing his own eyes.

"Kudo-kun offered you an alternative. You didn't even spare it a second glance. If you can't stand me so much, they why did you choose me over anything?"

"Because you are a puzzle," Saguru answered honestly, crossing his arms in front of his chest after finishing what was left of his piece. "And as annoying as you can be, there are things about you I don't fully understand. Motive, for one, seems to be either hidden or completely lacking in any of your actions."

Kaito shrugged. "Sometimes I do lack motive. You never heard of doing something just for the fun of doing it?"

"There's no reason behind such an action."

Kaito sighed, letting out a small laugh that held no humor. "You know, that's the whole point of doing something sometimes. You don't always need a reason. I've walked an hour away before to get something to eat, just because I felt like walking. I didn't really need too, and it was cold when I went, and the food wasn't all that good, but I did it just because I felt like it. You've never done something like that? Gone outside to look at the stars just because you wanted to, gone for a walk just because you felt like it? Watched something you hadn't heard of before when you could have done other things, just to see what it was about?"

"No," Saguru said without pause. "Doing any of that would be stupid. Why would I need to see stars if I see them every night in passing? Why would I go out for a walk if I didn't want to? And why in the world would I want to watch some random movie if not for the purpose of watching something I enjoyed?"

Kaito was silent for a while but Saguru didn't get the feeling that he had an answer.

"Because… just because. It's what people do. It's what makes life fun and interesting and different." The way Kaito was looking at him when he spoke bothered him. "You sound… kinda lazy otherwise. You read a book that interests you, right?"

"That interests me," Saguru agreed. "You claimed seeing a random movie was fun."

"It was though. You already did that." Kaito grinned at him. "Sure it wasn't the _best_ movie, but you had fun. Tell me what was wrong with that?"

"Nothing is wrong with entertaining yourself and others when you must. I do believe a planned evening that everyone had approved on before hand would have been more agreeable."

"Both of you be quiet," his mom said all of a sudden, snapping Saguru out of his reprise and, surprisingly, Kaito as well. "We're going to a Hotel after this. Saguru, you don't really have clothes anyway and we have to go shopping for Kaito so we might as well get you some new things. Then we're staying somewhere for a few nights. I know you wanted to be home, but Kaito's new around here and a hotel room seems fun, so that's what we're doing."

Saguru was speechless but Kaito not so much so, though that 'fun' he was talking about was no longer trailing in his voice. He sounded curious and maybe just a bit worried. "How far away is it?"

Saguru almost laughed. Right. Kid's plans would have to be arranged now, or better yet, canceled. He had no idea why Kaito was going to such great lengths to purposefully get under his nerves anyway.

"Well, I only just decided but I know a place. It's about a forty-minute drive northwest of here. Why?"

"Nothing." From the smug look on his face the direction only seemed to be helping his rivals plans and he was all to eager to agree with his mother now. "We're leaving right now, huh? I guess we can get set up. As long as I have _some_ clothes I can always just wash them too, so we don't have to spend an hour anywhere. I'm good with just about anything." Watching Kaito lounge about in the seat now was starting to get Saguru annoyed. He took this trip to come home, spend it IN his home and either alone or with his mother. He certainly had not asked for the company- at least, not valued it in retrospect, and of all the places they had to go, it wasn't another house, but a room that hundreds of other people had slept in and would feel nothing like home.

Kaito, either having more energy than his mother or, the fact that he was on the outside and was more good mannerly than he thought, cleaned up all the napkins and slide the tray near the edge of the table before standing. Saguru stood with him, though not near his classmate who was technically not a classmate at the moment.

The food was disgusting, or at least, not up to his standards and now they were going to spend a day in not much the same. That thought struck something though.

"**Mom, what about Jessica and Philip?**"

That made his mom pause.

"**Maybe I can get the neighbor to take care of them."** She slid out of the booth and sighed. "**I've been thinking so much on everything that's happened that I forgot about them. We'll need to go back so I can give her the key**."

Saguru shrugged. "**I haven't seen them around either so I only just thought of them. I take it they've been in your room?**"

His mother nodded. "**Since Kaito was here and because they've been sleeping with me since you've been away I moved their food upstairs**."

Kaito moved and tapped Saguru on the head until he was forced to look up at him. "What?"

"What are you guy's talking about? You have pats?"

"Yeah," Saguru smiled, taking a step to the side so he could not be prodded again. "Though they're really mom's now. If we're going to be leaving the house for a while someone will have to watch over them."

"What kind of pets are we talking about?" Kaito said, almost as if he were a little nervous.

"Cats. One's mine and one's my mothers, though I haven't seen him much. I more or less purchased him with my mother before I left for Japan, though my father would not let me keep him so he had to be kept here."

"Wouldn't even let you keep a cat?" Whatever nervousness was gone and Kaito closed one eye as he looked down at him. "Are you serious? You have a house keeper and, like you said, you never really see your dad."

"I am aware of that. It was not my decision to make though."

Kaito shrugged, heading out since his mom had already taken out the money and put it on the table.

"Oh Kaito, you really should see them. They're so adorable," his mom gushed as she followed him out. "Jessica's mine of course and Philip is a little brat when he wants to be, just like Saguru, and you can't help but want to hug them."

Saguru rolled his eyes. "_I am not a brat_." Though he wasn't too sure about his cat. He wasn't even too sure if it really was his cat. He hadn't seen it more than a few times in passing and the time or two he'd found a fur ball on the edge of his bed as he awoke after a visit. He wasn't even sure at the time that it had been the kitten he had picked out in the darkness and not his mother's cat, sneaking down to cause him trouble.

When they reached the car and he sat next to the magician he could see him smiling at him and it was bothering him. "What?"

"Philip," Kaito spoke, his smile growing. "I'm shocked you didn't name him something else, what with your taste in clothing."

Saguru got the joke. "I would never name a cat after Sherlock Holmes. That would be insulting. Cats may be intelligent but any animal with his name would only be offensive."

He heard Kaito laugh at him as he turned away. "Whatever you say."

Saguru shook his head. It was the truth. Besides, Philip might not be Sherlock, but he was someone he held in high respect, just not high enough to not have a cat named after him. He wondered now that he had time to think about it what kind of temperament the feline had. He'd mostly just seen the both of them sleeping.

There wasn't much conversation on the way back expect his mother muttering when she spotted something that they would 'have' to visit at some point while he was here. Saguru didn't much care where they wound up or what they did, considering he wasn't apparently going to be able to stay in his own room.

Saguru slid his shoes off while his mother kept hers on, going into the house. Kaito, having Japanese traditions ingrained in him, took off his shoes as well. When Saguru failed to follow his mom up the stairs to find the cats, Kaito stayed at his side instead of wandering. That was a first.

"If you are interested in the cats, feel free to roam about the house. I had said you could previously."

"I don't wanna. Besides, I don't really want to be alone with your mom. To be honest, she's kind of scary."

"She is not," Saguru defended her, not sure why he must. "Why would you say that?"

"I don't know." He watched the magician fidget. "Something about when she saw you and just the way she acts. It's like anything could set her off and, while she's not angry or anything… I don't know. It just feels like she only feels one thing. I mean, back there she didn't even ask what we were talking about." He watches Kaito's eyes narrow. "I don't like it."

"That's just the way my mom is. We don't really butt into anyone's business unless it affects us. It's considered very rude, though I believe that custom is carried into Japan as well.

"That's just not what it feels like. The most I really felt from her in ways of emotion was when you were hit and when she found you at my house. Ever since then… I don't know."

"If you don't know then please stop acting as if my mother were a repellent."

"I didn't mean to. And I didn't mean it that way."

Saguru was quite. It wasn't long after that he heard his mom upstairs, her cat coming down. Jessica was a few years older then his cat. His mom hadn't been able to _not_ have at least one cat since before he new when. She was older but, in his memories, if any cat had been a brat, it had been hers. The cat was cute though and her long hair and bright orange and white against the dark black patch on her head and one ear that traveled down her back made her contrast naturally against any surrounding. Jessica didn't want to great them though and quickly ran off into the kitchen. Saguru smiled, seeing his mom follow her cat down the stairs with what had to be his cat in her arms.

"Here you go Saguru. He keeps hiding under the bed." She came over and put the big mess of cat in his arms, too much for him to hold and Saguru was forced backwards and made to sit or lose control of the cat, it's overly large fluffy tail tickling his exposed feet.

His mother smiled and even laughed at him as the cat took over, nuzzling into his hand when it was close enough to the creatures head. Saguru smiled, petting him. It really had been a while. The little kitten he'd had had been as bright orange as the orange of Jessica. Now he was a lighter tan color.

He saw Kaito looking over at him. "Isn't it a beautiful bred?" Saguru held Philip up under the cat's arms as he looked at him, the fluffy tail trailing over his feet again. "it's called a Somali. I saw one once when I was little and had to have one." He looked up at his mother. "Thank you for taking care of him by the way."

"Of course. He's one of the family, even if he was one that was left behind." He saw her sneak off to find her own cat. "Besides, having only one of them around would have been lonely anyway. We should have bought a few."

"We don't need any more cats," Saguru defended, eyeing his once-been cat and it's yellow, demon eyes that couldn't do anything but make it cuter. "You're bad enough cleaning up after them. I'm a little surprised it doesn't smell in here." Saguru smiled, his eyelids falling as he looked after his mother. "Then again we weren't here and you probably had the neighbor watch them while you were in Japan."

Kaito bent down next to him and pet his cat on the head while Saguru looked him over and noticed something he hadn't taken notice of before. "Ah, mother. Why in the world does Philip have a pink collar?" And not just pink, it was hot pink. His nametag was red and in the shape of a heart. The only thing not pink was his vaccination tag, and that was a lime green.

His mother giggled, picking up Jessica who squirmed in her arms until she was able to stand up and support her better. "I couldn't help it Saguru. All the other collars were just so plain."

"Plain or not, he's a male. He can't have a pink collar." Saguru wasn't going to fight his mother for his cat though, and it didn't seem the feline minded the attack at its masculinity. Since he was done looking at him, he held the cat close and petting him, thus baring Kaito from doing the same. "Go pet my mother's if you're that intent on it." He was still sore at the magician for insulting, or doing close enough to it, one of the only members of his family he actually cared for.

"Fine then, I will." Kaito stood and went to pet his mother's calico cat, smiling at both is mother and the feline beforehand. It was either an act of defiance against what he'd accused of him or Kaito wasn't as uncomfortable around his mother as the magician claimed.

"Now then, we were just here to see them." His mother took her cat and handed her over to Kaito. "You can hold her as long as you want. Oh, and by the way, Saguru named them both." She rolled her eyes and Saguru couldn't help a smile. "I wouldn't have named my cats after detectives if I had a choice, but Jessica here like it." She petted her under the chin before grabbing a spare key out of the closet next to him, looking down at him. "I'll be right back after I talk with Susan for a while. I have to let her know we might not me back for a few days."

"Go ahead." Saguru went back to petting Philip, wondering why he had ignored him the other times he had been home. The cats just weren't that important to him and, not having grown up with him like he had wanted, the cat still felt more like his mother's than his own.

Once she was gone, Kaito came over to him with Jessica and sat on the ground with a smile. "They're both named after detectives? I didn't recognize either of them."

Saguru nodded. "Jessica is named after Jessica Fletcher. For the record, my mother did like that TV show. It was because of her interest that the cat was named such or I would have chosen something else."

"Um… TV show?"

Saguru couldn't help the small chuckling in his throat when Kaito still had no idea what he was talking about. "She's the name detective in 'Murder, She Wrote'. My mother was a fan. We had been trying to find a joint interest and that just happened to be one of them."

Kaito nodded. "I think I've heard of that but I can't say where. Can't say I've seen it either." He shook his head. "What about your cat?"

"Philip? He's easy. I named him after Philip Marlowe."

Saguru smiled at that while he continued to pet his cat, seeing that he was a lot more loving than some of the cats he'd been around before. It took a while before he noticed Kaito's confused look as he scatched Jessica behind the ears.

"You don't know who Philip Marlowe is, do you?" Saguru asked outrightly.

Kaito scoffed. "Of course I don't. Like I'd know anything about you detectives."

"His is only one of the most famous of the world. I would have expected you to have least _heard_ of him." Saguru shook his head and sighed. "Then again, maybe I just received the wrong idea of you with those books of yours."

"I read _some_ detective books, not all. Besides, you can't expect me to know everything." Kaito seemed more interesting in playing with his mother's cat than he did continuing the conversation and Saguru had nothing further to say to him so he went to stroking his own pet, wondering if he could sleep with him when he got back instead of the magician. Then again, the cat may be able to help the magician with his nightmares instead.

His mom came back after about fifteen minutes, a smiling on her face as she swooped down and grabbed both him and the cat in her arms.

"Mother," Saguru said, a blush quickly taking over his face. "Put me down."

"No can do. Everything's all set. Kaito," she spoke as she turned to the magician. "You don't mind going to a hotel, do you? There's really not much around here and while you're in the country you really should look around. It'll be a lot easier with a hotel room closer to the city."

"Sure thing. I don't care." Kaito put down Jessica as he stood up beside them and poked Saguru in the side of the head. "Aw, you're so cute."

"I am not _cute_." Saguru could at least free the cat from her hold, struggling a little himself afterwards, though not sure if he would really enjoy the fall if he did manage his escape. "Mother, put me down. I'm not a child."

"I'll put you down in the car." Both of his companions smiled as his mother locked up the house, shooing the cats away from the door and putting him down in the backseat where he was quickly joined by Kaito as they set off for a hotel.

"That was not funny," Saguru said angrily.

"_Was too_," Kaito whispered back, his mother messing with the radio instead. "_You know, she kind of treats you like that cat of yours._"

"Huh?" Saguru turned his head up at those words as they confused him, his hands still folded and his anger at both of them still strong enough to stay with him for a good few hours. "I am not a cat either."

"_I'm just saying she kind of treats you like him. Kind of like you're her pet. All you need now is a pink collar._"

Kaito laughed and Saguru sulked some more. He was no one's pet and so help him if his mother tried to get him into _anything_ pink.

…

The grand hotel that they arrived at an hour later was nothing special to him but Kaito seemed to have perked backed up. That was better than having to deal with the paranoid magician. He had to admit, his classmate probably had more than a few good reasons for being distrustful of those around him, not to mention those specifically of his own, more law-abiding, family.

There were plenty of exclamations of 'wow, this is big,' 'what is this?' 'how does this work?' 'I didn't know they made things like this,' and similar exclamations of excitement. His mother answered most of Kaito's questions while Saguru followed along, often having to wait while Kaito ran down the hall the opposite way of travel to explore the place. He had to assume that tonight the magician would be getting no sleep while he traversed the place.

Saguru tapped his foot and looked at his mother as Kaito continued to explore down the hall after they had gotten in and exited the elevator, blatantly going in the opposite direction of their room number. "**He tends to be very enthusiastic in everything he does**."

"**I noticed**," his mother said before giggling. "**He's so different from you. Even when you were little it was hard to just get you out of your room.**"

"**Forgive me for being a well-behaved child. I'm sure that some parents would have appreciated my personality**."

"**I didn't say there was**." Before Saguru could stop her she picked him up and started snuggling him.

"**Hey!**" Saguru started blushing again. It was one thing to hold him, it was another to do exactly as Kaito had said and treat him like some sort of pet. "**Knock it off mom! Really. You can't just keep picking me up or doing this.**"

"**But you're so cute Saguru. You were always cute when you were young.**" He was moved back only enough for her to kiss him on the forehead. "**Not that you aren't still cute, or were, but there's cute and then there's adorable**."

"**Hopefully this will not be permanent, so don't become accustomed to it**."

"**All the more reason to snuggle you while I can**," she said before proceeding to have at messing up his hair and almost dancing around with him. It didn't help when he heard Kaito laugh, clearly having returned though Saguru could not tell where he was due to unfortunate visual complications while his mother was smothering him.

"**Come on. Let me go mom**." Saguru was through struggling and just stayed where he was, hoping compliancy was better than defiance in escaping.

"**Ah. Fine you spoiled sport**."

Saguru was relieved when her hands went under his arms and he was placed on the floor. He turned to Kaito, the magician still laughing to himself while Saguru glare in return. "You wouldn't like it if it was the other was around."

Kaito looked at his mom, or specifically a singular area on his mom. "I don't think I'd have a problem with it."

The magician's smile was met with something far more seething from Saguru. "I forgot to consider your more perverted nature. Forgive me for the oversight."

"Hey, hey. Don't insult." Kaito turned to him and smiled more, though Saguru did notice his mother had caught on and folded her arms over her chest, a similar glare on her face. "Just because you're not as mature as I am doesn't mean you can insult me."

"That isn't what you call mature."

"No it is not," his mother agreed before going and slapping Kaito in the face. The magician deserved it and it wasn't as if he had the ability to intervene.

The puppy dog look of innocence and confusion that Kaito shot towards his mother was met with no repentance and when Kaito turned to him Saguru gave him no slack either.

Kaito sighed. "You're both so mean. It wasn't like I said anything."

"You don't look at a woman like that," his mother scolded. "Your mother should have taught you that. Don't be so disrespectful."

Saguru had to think on that. With who Kaito was and how he acted, he didn't think there was much the magician's mother could control, let alone teach. His own mother, being eccentric yet not anywhere near as crazy as Kaito and his mother, might have a chance. He wasn't going to back up her assault on him, since his classmate likely had never been struck by anyone except Aoko-chan before, but he wasn't going to fight her on it either. If he had been his rightful age Kaito may have provoked a violent action from his as well.

His mother took the initiative and moved, going to their room with Kaito following next to him, though silently now. Saguru smiled. Now he had reason to fear his mother. Her wrath wasn't something to take lightly and she _hated_ being demeaned.

Once in the room though, Saguru saw his mother smile and get happy all over again, picking him up as if they hadn't just fought about it. "Come with me Kaito. We have to go get something before we do anything else."

"Kay." Kaito smiled again as if they hadn't just had a confrontation minutes ago and Saguru sighed, seeing as he was in a losing battle himself. He let his mother carry him off, going down the stairs and leaving their car in the parking garage, instead getting a cab and taking them down the street.

"It's a lot easier doing this than getting the car out and then having to find parking again," she explained to the both of them when Saguru had more or less guessed that that was why they weren't taking the car. They were near the sitting. Parking practically didn't exist here.

He looked at the mall as his mother forced him to get out of the cab still in her arms, Kaito now back in a better mood now that he wasn't the one being belittled. Saguru would have to make sure he had his vengeance in some way. Though he had nothing he could do with Kid's plans tonight, he could make sure his mother was aware that the magician was missing and see where it went from there.

The clothing store they were brought into was nothing shocking. They were going to be away from the house and Kaito didn't get to go shopping for clothes while he'd be staying here with them, so he had nothing to pack either.

To his shock, his mother hand him over to Kaito, as if he were some type of package. "Here. Watch him for a while. You may not believe it but Saguru can get himself into the weirdest kinds of situations while he's not being watched."

"I'm not a child," Saguru defend while, at the same time, Kaito spoke.

"I know."

He turned his attention to the magician and glared at him. "With what you get into you really have to go attacking my own credibility?"

His mother laughed gently before walking away and Kaito laugh as well, though he put Saguru down once she was out of sight. "You do get into strange situations, especially everything you get into with me. Those would all be counted as 'strange' you know, and since it can't be something with me, I don't want to know what trouble you could find yourself in that you aren't already in."

"Do not bring that up again. I already feel foolish enough that people like that were able to get the better of me. Considering most they run into are dead though, I feel as if at least I had a bit of luck on my side that most do not, and that's more than I can say for someone who runs into a window."

Kaito winced. "That was an accident."

"I wouldn't be surprised if half the things you do, if not more, are accidents."

Kaito smiled and shrugged his shoulders. "I can't fight you on that."

"You can go get something to wear you know." Saguru knew that Kaito had a bag but nothing in the way of warmer clothes. "Of course I have a few things as well but both of us are going to need jackets and pants, considering that we are both lacking in them."

"I could just wear yours."

Saguru crinkled up his nose. "First off, I don't really feel comfortable with you wearing my things. Second, everything I own is back at the house and I doubt my mother has any plans on returning and then coming back here."

"No but I could always just pick them up myself."

Saguru raised and eyebrow. "And how would you explain your travel to her?"

"How else," Kaito grinned. "Taxi."

Saguru shook his head. "Whatever. I still don't want you wearing my things."

"Fine. I don't really care." Kaito shrugged, walking off. Saguru didn't miss that he kept the grin. "We have to go to the kid's section for anything you need."

"I don't need to be reminded." Saguru walked off, seeing Kaito following him instead of getting something for himself. That would be fine. Apparently he was the one who had a new pet, not his mother, and the puppy didn't seem to want to be shaken.

After grabbing two long-sleeved shirts and two pairs of pants, Saguru traveled to the 'men's' section, still feeling very embarrassed that Kaito could shop in this section and he couldn't.

Kaito didn't spend much time shopping though. He didn't even try anything on as he just grabbed a few things and then went looking for his mother.

"How can you tell those will fit?"

"I know." Kaito winked. "All I need to do is see something. It's a little harder with pants but I'm not getting any of those right now. I'm good with short and, like it or not, I'm still gonna take some of yours if I need them."

Saguru looked off to the side, his sulking not looking as intimidating as it would if he wasn't a child and didn't have his hands full of the small number over clothes that still managed to overtake him as easily as the cat had.

His mother, when the ran into her, had a small back in her hand already. "Here." She took his clothes from him and smiled at them both as they waited in line. "I'm sorry Kaito, I had to guess on something for you but there's a string."

Kaito tipped his head sideways but Saguru had no idea what she was talking about either. Likely clothes and, since there was a string, most likely pants of some sort.

Once their stuff was paid for and they were back to hailing a cab, Saguru wondered just what it was that he felt was still strange. Maybe the very fact that he was with his nemesis of so long, or maybe the body he was now in, while his own, was bothering him a lot more than he had first thought it would. He really did want nothing more than to be his own size again and the only person who could make that possible was back at Kaito's house, likely having far more enjoyment than he was, though he never really did see Ai smile much.

Walking back up to the front and going up to their room, Saguru found himself tired. There was nothing for him to do and he really found no interest in anything. The lethargy was something new to him. He'd never just felt like there was nothing to be done. He always had books he wanted to read, things he wanted to look into. Now he felt as if he could care less.

He truly wished that he didn't feel that lethargy leave him for embarrassment the moment they stepped into the room and his mother handed him banana-yellow swim trunks.

"There's a swimming pool on the third floor. Come on, lets go." She smiled, throwing the bag to Kaito after. Considering that there was nothing in her hand she had most likely planned this and brought her own suit.

"Mother, I don't really feel like swimming."

"I'm game!" Kaito said at almost the same time, dashing into the bathroom as Saguru heard the lock snick. He looked a his mother.

"Why must you always do things like this? I really don't want to go swimming."

"Because it's fun and you just are a complete sour puss." His mother stood up and crossed her arms, though it wasn't so much a glare as the fact that her smile held a demand and power of it's own. "Now get changed before he comes out or he's going to see your naked little butt. I'm the one using the bathroom next and then we're going to go swimming."

"I said I refuse." Saguru dropped the trunks on the floor, feeling that power of his mother's look as he folded his arms and turned. After a few seconds he picked them up with a sigh, not to sure what she and the magician could achieve once he was out. He didn't really want to picture it as he slide off his pants and undergarment, putting on the swim shorts. "I do hope you're happy."

"Very."

It didn't take long for Kaito to come out, almost as if he were listening and waiting for he cue to leave. His mother went in next, coming out in a suit that he was sure would get Kaito smacked if he looked at her once more, the magician noticing the same as he turned away, trying to keep his eyes to himself.

"Let's go swimming."


	27. A Step Forward

I'm so sorry updating has been taking so long. I'm sorry this chapter is a bit shorter than normal as well. And I'm sorry but I didn't have anyone read this over. I finished and checked most of it and just wanted to get it up.

Thank you all so much for your patiences

* * *

**Chapter 27: A Step Forward**

Kaito and his mother dragged off Saguru to the pool. While he did appreciate that the pool was nice and large, there was also a hot tube that he had to figure he'd be restricted from if he tried to enter. That was a bit depressing.

Before he could really think on it though, Kaito picked him up and next thing he knew he was in the cold water, coming up coughing. He wasn't up long before Kaito jumped right near him and he had no choice but to allow the water free reign at him since he had to tread or risk the magician drowning him. Having a smaller body most definitely affected his swimming abilities since he wasn't used to compensating for it any longer.

Even after coming up and seeing that he was having difficulty, Kaito still splashed him and Saguru had to retreat to the edge of the pool.

"Knock it off you moron. If there had been more people in here you'd get in trouble." There were three others but they were older and in the hot tub, minding their own business.

"Who cares? And I mean it. Who cares? It's not like anyone is gonna know who we are and it's not like we're going to run into anyone here after this. Not to mention I'm not bothering anybody but you. If you're going to yell at me at least do it right and don't make excuses." Another splash came his way but it wasn't like the tidal waves he had been tossing around before. "Say I'm bothering you. And just so you know, that won't get me to stop."

"If there's no way of stopping you then fine. I shall not say anything further unless you make an arse of yourself."

And then his mom jumped in the water while he wasn't looking, apparently while Kaito wasn't looking either, and he once again he felt water go up his nose before he had time to turn away from her. When he turned back, Kaito had somehow gotten into a splash fight with her. Really now, who was the elder here?

"If you kids insist on doing that then we're going to get kicked out."

Both stopped what they were doing as if he had actually gotten to them, his mother getting in one cheap splash when the magician wasn't looking… and then both laughed hysterically at him.

Okay. Saguru had to admit he saw the irony there himself and it did get him to smile along with him instead of feel insulted. He still didn't want to be doing this though. He couldn't even really swim. It took nearly all his energy to do it when he let go of the wall, so he didn't.

Kaito and his mother though had fun, racing each other back and forth. Surprisingly, his mother was the winner. He wouldn't normally have been surprised, she was a good swimmer, but next to the magician's spastic energy, he didn't think anyone else's could match it.

Then again, they didn't have any swimming classes in school. There was a strong likelihood that the water was something Kaito was less familiar with.

"Hey." Said Magician was at the other end of the pool now and shouting to him. Maybe it was the echo and not actually the volume. "Swimming pools are for, you know, swimming."

"I… _can't swim_," Saguru murmured quietly to himself. He looked away as if he hadn't heard or cared that Kaito was speaking to him. "_It's not like it's my fault."_

The magician was gone when he turned back and Saguru didn't like that. It was hard to see in the water and his eyes were still half-burning from the first sudden submergence he'd had. It didn't take too many guesses to figure where the magician was.

Kaito, and thank goodness he did, just popped up slowly next to him instead of dragging him under and giving him a heart attack like he thought he would.

"Tiny legs, huh. If it makes you feel any better, I wasn't a very good swimmer when I was young either. No body fat. I only seemed to sink and then there were…"

Kaito trailed off but Saguru didn't care what he was going to say. "Excuse me, I can swim perfectly fine. I just…"

"Tiny legs," Kaito repeated, this time with a smile. "Right?"

Saguru shifted. "_And I can't really hold my breath very long."_

The magician offered him his hand and Saguru looked at it, an eyebrow raising. "I'm not a girl and no, I do not want to win your favor."

The magician laughed and, again, Saguru eased up enough to smile. He still refused the help. "You holding me or not, I won't be able to stay afloat. The water's too deep for me to stand in any which way."

"Then you want to go by the ladder? If you need help, you can just grab it."

That was an idea. He had no idea what fun he could have staying in just one spot though. At one end of the pool, the water would be about four feet. He could always kick off the bottom. "And what do you suggest, playing Marco Pollo while I can't actually move anywhere?"

"Marco what?"

Saguru let out a light breath, just waiting for the magician to get him angry again. He wasn't though. "What am I supposed to do simply holding onto the ladder?"

"Just swim. You don't' really have to do anything. It's just nice being in the-"

Whatever the magician was going to say, it was cut off by a sudden torrent of water that hit both of them, shoving Saguru back under for a second so he was half-blinded and chocking once it was gone. His mother's laughs weren't hard to miss.

"_Everyone here… children."_

Saguru looked next to him and Kaito was gone. He didn't want to know where he went. "Now, I believe, is the time to get out of the pool." Of course though, he was no where near the ladder yet.

Of course, as he suspected, he was grabbed and pulled under the water again. This time he was sure it was Kaito that had him and not his mother. The magician found it fun to then launch him as far as he could into the air. Thankfully that didn't give him much height but that was still enough to annoy him.

After much floundering around, Saguru retreated to where he could sit on the steps and just barely be in the water while Kaito and his mother found ways to race one another and both act as if they were his current age. It was embarrassing and for once he was happy for his youth. When others entered the pool, no one turned to him to reign in the behavior.

Coming out pruney and soaking wet even though he was mostly dry, his mother wrapped him in a very wet hug.

"Saguru you really have to learn how to have some fun."

"I know how to have fun," he defended. This just wasn't fun to him. It may have been when he was really this age, when his childhood had hold of him, but once he age he found his own likes and dislikes. He could swim laps, but he never found pleasure in the pool other than for exercise.

Kaito let out a sigh and came up with them, throwing a towel over his wet hair. "Okay, what is fun then? It _is_ your time to get away and relax. What do you want to do?"

Saguru thought about it and he got an answer quickly enough. "I want to go back to Japan." He did. He grew up here, here was a place to relax, but with his mother and the way they were all latching all over him, he wanted the freedom he had back in Japan. He had his own house and if he spoke with Baaya, he could stay there, pretend to be his own cousin or something.

Kaito, of course, wasn't happy with this. "I need to do something…" He didn't have to say tonight. They both knew he was after a jewel in the most guarded place he knew of in Europe.

"Then you stay here with my mother and I'll return home. My father is never home in any case, so he shouldn't be an issue."

Kaito glared at him. "I really wish you'd just wait. If you can get a ticket that fast, I can't really stop you. Going alone though, you know you don't have your papers, I do."

And of course they had to use Kaito's acquaintances to get them. Saguru had no way of replicating forged papers.

"Two days from now then."

"No." His mother came up behind him and hugged him, lifting him as she did and swinging him side to side. "Don't leave. I can be fun too. You've only just gotten here."

Saguru really didn't want to stay. He didn't know if it was because of his mother or this place, but he didn't want to. He wanted to be home, but even the house here hadn't been home. The house back in Japan never was either, but at least Watson was there. He didn't think he could handle him, being this size, but he was… family. He was also quiet and wouldn't demean him like the others unintentionally were.

"I'm sorry mother. I'll return, I promise, but for now, I wish for some time on my own."

"Sa-gu-ruuuu." His mother moaned out his name but he was not going to change his mind. There had been nothing but trouble since this all started and his was sick of his size hindering him. It would not any longer. He was an individual and free to do whatever he wished.

Once he was put down, he went back to brooding. The hotel wasn't any fun. None of this was. It was all a trial he had to get through. While he wished he didn't see it that way, he couldn't stop it.

Kaito made several attempts to get him to smile while they dried off, but realized after a while it wasn't working. That was the first he'd seen the magician give up on something, and he appreciated it.

"Do you want to go home then," his mother asked after a few minutes of silence. Saguru nodded, then shook his head.

"It doesn't really matter. You can do whatever you want."

"But what do _you_ want."

"I-" He looked at both of them as he turned, finding them more silent than they had been earlier. He sure knew how to ruin a mood. He took in and let out a breath. "I really don't care. I don't think I'll be coming back down here if we stay. That's all I can say for sure."

""I'm sorry you feel so powerless."

Saguru's eyes met Kaito's. His words sounded honest but he had no idea how to take them.

"I'm not. I mean, I may feel slightly powerless in this situation, but I'm not one to do nothing. Someone did this to me, and I want to find a way to counteract it. The only person who had the ability to do that is back in Japan. If I lend my own talents, even if they aren't wanted, it's better then sitting here and swimming. I need to _do_ something."

And of all the silly things, _that_ made the magician smile.

"That sounds more like you."

Saguru shook his head. "Anything that comes from my mouth, or maybe yours, should sound like me. I have no idea what you mean by that comment." Though he kind of did. With all the trouble he had, and all the trouble he'd witnessed Kaito having, he never understood before how Kaito could still smile through it all.

Because he was acting, he was doing something about it. Saguru wanted that as well. He'd been doing it before… why did he stop? Why had he given up? Why had he run?

Saguru smiled towards the magician, finding his old confidence in it. "Mark my words, you will not enjoy the next two days you're spending here."

"I do like having competition."

"You know, you two always talk about the weirdest things sometimes. So, are you going to explain this rivalry to me?"

Kaito laughed as Saguru turned to his mother. "It's a persona vendetta, so to speak. It's not all that simple to explain and I prefer it between the two of us. I'm sorry for keeping secrets but this is one you don't need to know."

She huffed but dropped the subject.

Saguru turned to Kaito more seriously, feeling in control and closer to his real self than he had since this had happened to him. His grandfather dying, his own age problem… he could overcome it all.

And, to be fair, Kaito had overcome worse.

Not that that really matter. Saguru let his thoughts stray from that. If he was getting inspiration from that thief, he was going to start worrying about his own mental heath. Kaito had problems, serious problems, problems that involved bullets. Once Saguru was he own age again, he'd help understand those issues, but for the time being he was going to stick to reasonable goals.

First goal. Get some clothes on. He didn't like walking around nearly naked.

"Come on." He freed himself from his mother and strode off towards their room number, throwing a towel over his shoulders. "We did get a house sitter so let's go back to the room and have a small vacation here. It won't hurt, and if it does, it'll be me, and I promise revenge in return."

Saguru smiled when he heard Kaito laugh and run a few steps towards him so they were walking side by side.

"You know, I think I like you better when you're all snobby like this."

"And I think I like you better when you're in that dark place of yours and don't speak as much. It gives one time to think instead of focus on your countless, needless jabbering."

"Now that's just mean."

And before the magician could continue, his stomach growled so loudly that Saguru would have been surprised if someone in the pool area hadn't heard it.

"I say we get something to eat after we dress."

Kaito blushed and chuckled. "Me too. Swimming really burns the calories. Considering I barely have an inch of fat on me, I'm usually starving afterward."

"With how much sugar I've seen you consume, I'm surprised that you do not retain more weight."

"Naturally strong metabolism." Kaito patted his naked stomach, grinning. "It's a talent that runs in the family. You should see what my mom can put away. It's amazing. I think we surprise everyone when we go out to buffets."

"I prefer not being thin as a rail." Saguru didn't know why but he felt he had to defend himself. He wasn't exactly a light-weight naturally. When he was a child, sure. He hadn't started growing taller and broader until he hit fifteen or so.

Why Kaito suddenly snapped his head forward, he wasn't sure. They passed a group of people on the way out and suddenly the magician was just gone, his voice coming but behind them. Saguru turned to see what was going on.

In Kaito's hands was a pocketknife. He held it up in a gesture that was borderline playful, borderline dangerous.

"**You know, you really should not take this into the pool area,**" Kaito spoke carelessly, flipping the blade in the air. He took one of the men of the group's hand and placed it there, blade snapped back into the sheath. "**Make sure you are careful."**

Then the criminal pickpocket walked off with a smile while the man who had been given the knife back stared at him in something close to mock horror. The others in the group turned nervously to their poolmate as if they hadn't known he had the pocketknife and wasn't sure what he was going to plan with it.

Saguru started to walk with Kaito as he past him, his mother watching as well though staying at his side. "What was that? Why'd you take that from him?"

"I gave it back. I just brought it to everyone's attention. If he was planning something bad with it, this will dissuade him. If not, no one was hurt. It's a win win situation." The magician grinned down at him. "You wouldn't have done the same?"

"No, no I wouldn't. That would have been stealing from the man. You also may have needlessly scared the others he was with."

"I'll be fleeting if he is pure of heart and mind," Kaito spoke saintly. "Anyway, enough about that. What's done is done and I wouldn't change a thing. Let's get going." They reached the elevator and Kaito hit the button for it to come. "You know you worry too much about the smallest things."

"I'm not worrying I'm… impressed." Saguru wasn't sure he wanted to admit it but it was the truth. "And I see the reasoning to your actions this time far more than I usually do. You really don't like harm coming to anyone, do you?"

"Not at all. Why do you think I'm watching you like a hawk? Forgive the pun. Tantei-kun can take care of himself, but if I knew him back when it first happened and saw him wandering around aimlessly as you were, I would have helped him too, so don't feel too special."

"But I am special," Saguru said with a matching smile, though slightly not as manic as Kaito's. "I'm an amazing individual with intelligence, as you have, that surpasses my age and abilities that I am not modest about. Had I my own body again, I'd be out there showing them off, though not in the same way that you do. I have class. You're too gaudy."

"And you're too snobby. I make people laugh. You made them not cry. I guess that's similar but still. I bring fun into what I do. You like the serious stuff. If I had to deal with that all the time, I'd go crazy."

"That's why I have you."

"That why the world has me. I'm just that amazing." Kaito's grin was far too big for his face. So was he ego for his body though so Saguru let him be. He was feeling much better than he had been. He'd talk to Shinichi-kun when they returned. He had to find some why to fight, like he was. He wasn't going to be sitting back and let criminals get away with whatever they wanted on his watch any longer. Kaito was stopping more than he was, and that wasn't right. He had to fix that.

When they returned and Saguru got into a change of clothes, they took to the streets. His mother knew the area better than he did, speaking of restaurants that were nearby. He and her both agreed on one but Kaito repeatedly shot it down. There were other foods there but they couldn't seen to get him to agree. What he had against fish and chips, Saguru didn't know. It was iconic, even if it wasn't the best food they had. The magician could at least try it. They didn't deep-fry fish very much in Japan.

In the end Kaito only let them get fried chicken. It wasn't his favorite and, after the pizza, he was feeling very unhealthy. There had to be some balance somewhere in his diet. Kaito may have the metabolism of several dozen children but he did not.

It was still light when they finished and Saguru just stood against the building outside, being thankful for the someone dirty fresh air. Japan smelled better. He had to admit, London did have its bad areas. It was coming clean, so to speak though. "I wouldn't mind a crime to solve if it wouldn't look so strange. I suppose when we get back to Japan, with not having to pave the way for such a new idea as children detectives, I'd have an easier time of it."

"I prefer crime-free, thank you." Kaito winked at him, showing his meaning behind it. Saguru didn't need the wink. He understood well enough.

"It doesn't have to be a murder," Saguru assured him. "I want something that challenges me. I have not had to use my mind as of late. I've been too busy sulking in it. Now that I am not, I need stimulus."

"That sounds dirty."

"Thank you for that image." Saguru pinched the bridge of his nose. "You know, unless you say something, I take everything for it's actual meaning."

Kaito grinned more. "I am the master of misleading. Of course I could change your meaning. It comes naturally to me."

"I know a few things that come naturally to you, traits I wish you didn't possess."

"You know I'm awesome in every possible way." Kaito put a hand on his head and surprised Saguru so much that he stopped and turned to face the person who's hand it was.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"I'm being happy that you're back. It felt like I lost a friend for a while there, without really losing you. You were bringing me down too, like a sinking ship. Now that you're feeling better, I'll have less stress, and less nightmares."

"You were having nightmares because of me? I thought you said you had them every night?"

"Oh, almost every night. Only when I get stressed out. You stressed me out, that day a week ago stressed me out, a lot of things were stressing me out. I didn't get much sleep." Kaito yawned, and for once, Saguru could see the fatigue there that he was constantly hiding. "I'm still going to have nightmares for the next two days."

Saguru had to agree, he would too if he was having nightmares from stress. "You know you're trying to do what no one has done before."

"I know. I need to be sure of something though, and I'll never get this chance again. There something here that I need. I won't keep it, so don't worry."

"You've never kept it, but I have to wonder, are you ever going to explain to me what you've been wanting all this time?"

Kaito let out a breath. "I don't know. Maybe. I'd rather just take care of it the way you would a crime that you knew you were capable of doing on your own, and was personal."

"I suppose I can understand that. I've seen it often enough, mostly by killers who are trying to solve problems on their own, because they think they can erase them without help." Saguru started walking again, but he hated comparing Kaito to one of them. He wasn't. He never would be. Saguru had known the magician's heart for a while now. That was where most of the similarities lay though.

"Tantei-kun is doing the same that. That's why you're here. So go preach to him."

Saguru hadn't thought about that. In a sense, he knew very little of what Shinichi-kun was doing. They way they had spoken of it though he hadn't mentioned many other. Ai-kun was different. She wasn't actively fighting, she was just trying to recreate the drug.

"There's truth enough in that. And he will get preached at, as you say. I am going to help whether he likes it or not. I think that my talents are better suited for helping Ai-kun, but you wouldn't be a bad replacement for her assistant in my place."

"No. No thank you. I can't science like you two can. Sure I could get this or that, but she's probably better off on her own than me as a distraction. I have selective ADHD. Trust me, I'll find a way to get myself either blown up or kicked out. That's the best thing to use chemicals for anyway."

"Very well. You go about your business and I'll go about mine. I'll stay with Shinichi-kun and you can return to your own house and we shall see nothing more of each other."

Kaito didn't seem to like that and, in truth, Saguru didn't really either.

"You know, you can still stay at my house, even if you're going to be working with him."

"Or you can stay with me. I can get a hotel and stay in Japan with you."

Saguru turned to his mother, seeing the worry and need in her eyes. He wasn't sure why, maybe to keep her safe, but he didn't want her anywhere near this. It was dangerous and he wanted her safe. It was easier to find him if he was with family.

"Mother, the safest thing for both of us is for you to remain here. I don't want to draw attention to myself. I'm supposed to have been killed. Going to grandfather's funeral was already far too much. If any of the family were asked and spoke of the incident, I'm already in danger, as is any family member they find me with. I can't explain this to you right now but it's important that you don't keep in contact with me. If something happens, I will be the one who contacts you."

"And what if I want to be in danger with my son?"

"The all the attention will be on us and we will be found out and likely killed. Mother, I am not trying to push you away. We will be here two more days and I promise sometime in the next few months if nothing happens that I will return and spend time here with you, longer than I have now. I'm sorry about the deception. It wasn't planned. I had thought I'd be staying." He had his priorities back now though and he wanted to be back in Japan, now. Kid was the only reason he wasn't. He meet Kaito's eye, knowing that he couldn't try and stop him this go around because of the location. Even if he were his correct age he wouldn't' be allowed near.

…

It was dark. Saguru was outside of a building, leaning against it and protected against the cold fall air. He didn't know if he should be here but Kaito said he could and he'd received a cab ride, courtesy of himself, since Kaito had needed a ride and had no foreign money.

He was really doing it. He was sneaking into the building where the Crown Jewels were, stealing one of them. Kid was a legend in Japan and this would make him one throughout Europe. That was, if he succeeded.

If he failed, he'd be labeled an imposter. There was no way the royal guards would think that a seventeen year old Japanese boy was Kid. His heritage would match but they'd mark it down as wanting to show off. He'd be jailed for the attempted thief and odds were he'd get at least ten years. Saguru wouldn't be waiting here for him if that happened.

Why the risk, he wasn't sure. It wasn't like his other risks. He didn't know the police force here, barely knew the area, and the consequences here were much more severe.

There had to be something worth so much. He just couldn't understand what it was. He'd been on past cases with Kid and knew that it had something to do with his father. He knew that before he'd seen the devotion that the teen had to his deceased father. Now it was almost as if he were a god to him. Everything in his life, it seemed, revolved around his teachings.

The proof of this was found with the way Kaito had reacted on the anniversary of his death. He hadn't eaten, had no metal or psychical stamina, and was good as a mental patient. It was so different than how he really was.

Saguru looked at his watch. Half an hour. He had expected Kaito back around now. He'd give him another thirty minutes. If he didn't show up by then, odds were he had been caught or was incapacitated somewhere. Those were not pleasant thoughts. He would not be able to return to Japan without him for one thing.

For another, he'd lose his rival. It was not fair to have him caught like this.

Saguru had plenty of time to figure out what he was after. A cured jewel if he had ever heard of one. It's legend even extended to Japan. The worse thing about the curse was it supposedly only affected men.

There was also a saying to this particular diamond. Who said it, he wasn't sure anymore. It was in a text he had read long ago, when he bad been researching such foolish things because of Kid. "He who owns this diamond will own the world, but will also know all it's misfortunes."

He didn't need the saying to think that it already related to Kaito. He was the personification of that saying, though still… life could get worse.

He also had no idea how a diamond could help one rule the world. The Koh-I-Noor sure would give someone enough financial help to pursue any career they would care to, but it wasn't as if it would do much more than that.

Why he couldn't stop thinking of that stupid curse, he didn't know.

Saguru didn't believe in such things. It was foolish. Why it was associated with a diamond too, was strange. So many old artifacts had curses and legends. It was simply because they were old… they were there in a time when those things were popular.

It didn't matter now, in this day and age. Tragedy… That was just… just not going to happen because of a jewel. The repercussions of having money and such- that he could see- but not for owning something so small.

And then Kaito jumped down in front of him, all black, black cape flowing around behind him.

"Hi."

Saguru had to look him over to make sure it was Kaito. The iconic costume he always wore being black was something he'd never seen before, and he'd run across his fair share of imitators.

It was just wrong but the face that was looking at him and smiling wasn't.

"What's with the black?"

"I like the outfit but do you have any idea how hard it is to get in there?" Kaito raised his thumb as if he were hailing a cabby. "I had to make some changes, just for right now. It was important."

"Did you actually steal one of the crown jewels? From the crown itself?" Saguru was skeptical but this was Kaito and he wouldn't put a thing past him. As much as this pushed all his other thefts aside 'newsworthy' wise, he found the idea of him completing it was completely natural. If anyone could, Kid wasn't an outrageous idea.

Kaito revealed gloves just as black as his outfit, a diamond sitting in his palm.

"Naturally."


End file.
